Ellsworth entered the week off conference splits with Altoona and Amery and added another, losing 8-4 to Baldwin-Woodville on Tuesday and recovering with a 5-4 extra-innings win at home Thursday.

Ellsworth built a 3-0 lead midway through the third in the opener off a Wyley Myers liner to center was dropped, a first and third steal play allowed a runner to score and Jack Stoltenburg hit an opposite field ground ball single to score. The Panthers coughed up a couple, but it was the bottom of the fifth where the real damage was caused when the Blackhawks found some windows to dunk in hits with timely batting for a 5-3 lead they would not give back.

“Played well out of the shoot on Tuesday, and then kind of beat ourselves late in the game,” Head Coach Brandon Voelker said. “We dropped a three-run fly ball that should have got us out of an inning, we had two plays where we picked somebody off and we just didn’t throw the ball.”

Voelker also felt the team played into the Blackhawks’ hand offensively, losing some of the plate discipline that has driven their better games.

“Obviously Baldwin’s a good program, and they’ve been around the top of the conference for a while now, but I thought we had a real good shot to beat them on Tuesday and we kind of let it slip through our hands,” Voelker said.

In game two, the Panthers benefited from a dropped fly ball, allowing Nolan Kummer to drive in Graysen Jensen to tie things at one in the bottom of the third. The Panthers kept it going in the bottom of the fourth with Parker Peterson and Evan Beissel driving in runs with singles. In the bottom of the fourth the Blackhawks got sloppy and some solid baserunning got Ellsworth a 4-1 lead. After Baldwin-Woodville eventually tied things up, the game was drawn to extra innings.

Jensen led off the bottom of the eighth by reaching on an error from a grounder to second. Gavin Klos walked to advance Jensen to second with no outs and Derek Johnson followed suit to load the bases. Kummer was not going to let the moment go to waste, flicking a fly ball to right field allowing Jensen to tag up and score.

“Honestly, I saw a lot of the same on Thursday, only we came out on the opposite end,” Voelker said. “We were kind of lackadaisical running the bases.”

Stoltenburg was a massive part of the win, pitching his way from the first inning all the way until extras before Johnson shut the door with a couple of outs.

“Jack Stoltenburg, I mean he threw seven and a third with 100 pitches, which is pretty insane if you ask me,” Voelker said.

Jensen has also been a standout for the Panthers, looking clean in the outfield and at the plate of late.

“We got big contributions on both nights out of a freshman in Graysen Jensen,” Voelker said. “That’s going to be a really special player to watch over the next three and a half years.”

Voelker said Kummer is batting over .600 overall and over .500 in conference, proving to be an unstoppable force at the plate.

“I told these guys this after we lost on Tuesday, I truthfully believe number one this is the most talented team I’ve had in my years of being a head coach, and, number two, I truthfully, truthfully believe we have a team that could win a regional or sectional championship,” Voelker said. “It’s just how are we going to play ourselves, not so much the other team.”

The bats have come around thanks to a decrease in strikeouts, scoring double-digits in three games in a row in late April.

“Part of it is guys starting to buy into the approach,” Voelker said. “Swing early if you find something you like. Go get it. Don’t sit back and wait. Obviously, in high school baseball and in any baseball, you get three strikes and you’re out. Let’s not waste one if it’s there.”

Many high school pitchers go to the fastball early in counts, and Voelker wants to see his players jump on them.

At 3-5 in conference play, just two games separate the Panthers from second place in the Middle Border standings and three games separate them from first. Voelker said they know what it will take, and they have seen the difference between a few more wins in action. Some of Ellsworth’s losses have felt preventable, according to Voelker.

“Play clean defense and throw strikes,” Voelker said. “What worries me is the amount of errors… How do we get out of our own heads and just play loose and play free.”