The Crestwood Panthers scored early and often, and Justin Schassburger pitched his way into the team record books on Monday at Marian Catholic High School en route to a big win over the Northwest Indiana Oilmen.  

Justin Schassburger threw six innings on the day striking out 10 Oilmen batters in the 10-5 victory to take home his fifth win on the season. This breaks the Panther’s single-season record for wins by a pitcher in a season previously set by Breven Daugherity in 2020.  

The Panthers offense started off hot in the first inning thanks to Oilmen defensive miscues. With men on second and third, Ray Hilbrich reached on an error by Tylor Phommachanhom scoring Peter Fusek. Brandon Simon reached two batters later on another error by shortstop David Marshall scoring Jimmy Gurgone.  

With the extra outs, the Panthers took advantage with back to back doubles by Alex Las, which scored Hilbrich, and Joshua Aguiniga, which scored Simon and Las. This made it a 5-0 ballgame at the end of the first inning.  

In the second, the Panthers scored twice more as Ray Hilbrich grounded out scoring Fusek for Hilbrich’s second RBI of the contest. A wild pitch scored Gurgone to make it 7-0.

 The Panthers would put up more runs in the third as Fusek grounded into a fielder’s choice scoring Connor Janik, and Janik would get two RBIs on a two-run double in the fourth. It was an all-around effort for the offense on this night, and head coach D’Vante Glenn was pleased.  

“They did what they needed to do and were able to execute.” Glenn said.  

Jacob Cook bookended the day with a nine-out save giving up only two hits and striking out four bringing the Panther staff’s total strikeout number to 14. The save was Cook’s fourth on the season.  

“It was great to see him have is own confidence to go out there and be able to fill out the strike zone.” Glenn said.   The win moved the Panthers a little closer to only 3.5 games behind the Joliet Generals for the final Northern League playoff spot. Every game is critical for Crestwood down the stretch.  

“We’re all thinking about the playoffs.” Glenn said, “We’re just trying to take it game-by-game because that’s all we can do.” 

The Panthers have another critical game coming up on Tuesday as they host the Joliet Generals at Marian Catholic High School at 5 p.m. For the full box score, visit the Northern League Pointstreak page: http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=577461