By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Nick Panagos pitched a complete game shutout and the Jefferson City Renegades beat the St. Joseph Mustangs 4-0 at Phil Welch Stadium Saturday in the third and final game of the MINK League Championship Series.
Jefferson City scored their first run in the fourth, two more in the fifth and another in the sixth. The Renegades outhit the Mustangs 10-5 as well.
Panagos, who plays for Drury University, threw 119 pitches in the win, striking out six and walking only two.
Trevor McCollum had a double and walked twice to lead the Mustangs at the plate. Ike Book, Easton Bruce, Mason Holton and Noah Bodenhausen each had a single in the loss.
Michael Infranca took the loss on the mound. He threw the first five innings, allowing seven hits and three earned runs. He struck out two and walked one.
The Mustangs were held without a hit over the final three innings, making any comeback effort tough in the end.
"When it came down to it, we didn't execute when we needed to," Mustangs coach Johnny Coy said. "I know we had a nice walk-off (Friday), but before that, we weren't swinging the bat too well. That's just the way baseball goes. Sometimes you're hot, sometimes you're not."
St. Joseph ends the season at 33-18 overall. While their streak of consecutive championships ends at three, team owner and president Ky Turner takes pride in what the team achieved, given that they were just one win away from another title.
"We'd love to win," Turner said. "Can't control the score of the game, but what (the team) did for our community can't be understated. We're always hungry for that next Opening Day. I think losing the championship game in the manner in which we did, I don't think we're satisfied with that, but it's going to allow us to come out here next season ready to roll."
"We came up just short, but fought to the very end," Coy added. "Hats off to our guys for continuing to compete each and every day. It's a long summer. You play so many games in a short amount of time. It can be a grueling, long summer and for us to get our guys back in a position to compete for another championship is pretty awesome."
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