Photo by Andrew Grimm Buckeye Local pitcher Ethan McHugh delivers in the seventh inning of Friday’s game against Toronto at the Knights Baseball Complex. The senior tosses a complete game shutout to lead the Panthers to a 3-0 victory.

TORONTO — Not many teams in the last two decades have been able to say they swept Toronto.

Thanks to a complete game shutout effort from senior pitcher Ethan McHugh, a couple of big plays in the field and some timely hitting, the 2022 Buckeye Local Panthers get to say they swept the state-ranked Red Knights by winning both games in Toronto in the same week following Friday’s 3-0 win at the Knights Baseball Complex.

“Anytime you can come up here and beat a team like that twice it is huge,” Buckeye Local head coach Jeffrey Patrick said. “We haven’t got to play a lot of baseball this week, so coming out of Toronto with two wins is big. You look at the banners, you look at the rankings, they are a really good program and I think they are going to be a really good team towards the end of the year.

“We matched our win total from last year in the second week of the season. That’s really big for us.”

McHugh fanned four, including the last two batters to end the game, did not issue a walk and used just 92 pitches in keeping Toronto off the board.

“Ethan is something special, we’re lucky to have him,” Patrick said. “He pitched his but off. He throws a fastball that is pretty hard for a high school kid and then he mixes in that knuckleball that is a strike two-third of the time. Only 92 pitches in a seven-inning game against Toronto is pretty special, and a shutout here is pretty special, too.

“He doesn’t bow down from a challenge. Bases loaded, good hitter at the plate … he gets us out of it. The connection between Ethan and Matt (Scott) behind the plate is special. We trust Matt, he called every single pitch … we communicate, we have a scouting report, but it was all between those two.”

Scott tossed a complete game in Buckeye Local’s 4-2 win at Toronto on Monday. Friday’s victory was the Panthers’ fourth straight after an 0-2 start.

The Red Knights (5-4) left five men on base in the first four innings and had scoring opportunities thwarted by inning-ending double plays turned by the Panthers (4-2) defense in the bottom of the second and fourth.

“Coach Patrick is doing a great job with (the Panthers),” Toronto head coach Bria Perkins said. “We had some balls that we hit pretty well and they made all the plays. We left runners stranded early on and that really came back to bite us in the butt.

“We had two on in the first, two on in the second and the bases loaded in the third, and we left them all on. We have a young team, only one senior out there, and we’re going to get better. You get better from playing in games like this and competing.”

Dom Bouscher pitched a strong game in his own right for Toronto, striking out 12 while also going the distance.

After a hit and an error put Red Knights on second and third with one away in the bottom of the first, McHugh worked out of the jam, ending the inning with a strikeout.

A hit and an error in the bottom of the second again put two men on, this time with no outs, a sac bunt putting them again on second and third with one away, but a flyout and to center and a hasty throw home Skyler Ebright to prevent Toronto’s Nate Brownfield from scoring a run and end the inning again got the Panthers out of the jam unscathed.

Then, in the top of the third, Buckeye broke through first. Gavin Romanyak got the Panthers’ first hit of the game, moved to second on a bunt, then third on a wild pitch, racing home on another ball that got away for a 1-0 lead.

A Bouscher strikeout ended the inning with two Panthers stranded to prevent any further damage.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Knights were again threatening with the bases loaded and just one out after Blake Close and Brownfield singled and Andy Silverthorn reached on an error, but a perfectly turned 1-2-3 double play again ended the threat.

“We work really hard on our defense,” Patrick said. “It’s stinks with the weather we’ve had, we’ve only had a couple practices outside, but the way our defense has been performing, it shows how hard these guys have been working inside and outside and how much they want to be better than we were last year.

“Our seniors and juniors had a year stolen from them with the pandemic and last year was tough, so they are really competing hard.”

From there, McHugh worked 1-2-3 innings in the final three while his offense added a little more cushion.

A two-out RBI single by Jacob Berry in the top of the sixth made it a 2-0 lead, while a Jesse Meddles RBI double in the top of the seventh provided the final margin.

“We got the clutch, spontaneous hitting that we needed to have,” Patrick added.