Baseball Game Preview: Great Bend Panthers vs. Hutchinson Salthawks

The Great Bend Panthers will face off against the Hutchinson Salthawks at 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Great Bend will be strutting in after a win while Hutchinson will be coming in after a loss.

Great Bend is looking to give their home crowd another W after opening their season at home on Tuesday. They never let Garden City get on the board and left with a 13-0 victory. The win continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Buffaloes: they've now won five in a row.

Carson Umphres

Runs Batted In (Career)

03/25/25 vs Garden City	5
05/08/24 @ Manhattan	2
05/03/24 vs Junction City	2
04/23/24 @ Thomas More Prep-Marian	2
04/16/24 vs Emporia	2

Carson Umphres was a major factor while hitting and pitching. He struck out six batters over 3.1 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit (and only one walk). Umphres was also big at the plate, going 3-for-4 with one home run, five RBI, and two runs. Those five RBI gave him a new career-high.

In other batting news, Koehn Ribordy was excellent, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 2-for-3. Slade Mohr was another key player, scoring three runs while going 1-for-2.

Meanwhile, Monday just wasn't the day for Hutchinson's offense. They fell just short of Pratt by a score of 2-0 on Monday. Having soared to a lofty ten runs in the game before, the Salthawks' shutout was a dramatic turnaround.

Everything went Great Bend's way against Hutchinson in their previous matchup back in March of 2024, as Great Bend made off with a 14-2 victory. Will Great Bend repeat their success, or does Hutchinson has a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.