Kingwood Park had only played a couple close games in 2025. The Panthers got a bargain’s worth of one-run contests last week.
Kingwood Park spent its spring break with a 6-5 matinee loss at Crosby last Tuesday before edging West Fork 3-2 on Friday night at home.
The Panthers (8-3, 2-1) have their work cut out for them this week in District 18-5A with a Tuesday night game at second-place Dayton (9-6, 3-0) and a Friday game back home against fourth place Porter (9-7, 2-2).
Although Kingwood Park fell at first-place Crosby Tuesday, the Panthers fought to get back in a game it trailed 5-0 after three innings. After cutting it to two runs in the fourth, Keilee Brown smacked her first varsity home run, a two-run job that scored Abbey Papadimitriou.
The euphoria of tying the game didn’t last long as Crosby re-gained the lead in the next half inning and held on to win.
In the program’s first game against West Fork, Papadimitriou doubled in the fifth to un-tie a 2-2 game and Allie Minick allowed one base runner over the next two innings to seal the win. The sophomore struck out 11 and walked four while allowing just two hits. Papadimitriou was 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
Dayton rides a four-game winning streak into this week. The Broncos beat Porter 6-3 and blasted Splendora 14-5 last week.
Kingwood Park and Dayton have a vast history on the softball field, including as district foes in recent years. The Panthers are 10-13 all-time against the Broncos, who won two out of three meetings a year ago. Kingwood Park won 3-2 April 2 and fell 4-0 and 4-3 (tiebreaker game) during the last week of April. The Panthers won the April 2 game on a walk-off as Samantha Barnes crossed the plate.
Porter played just once last week, the aforementioned 6-3 loss to Dayton. Its last win came March 6 over West Fork (14-0) and the Spartans took Crosby to extra innings on March 4 before losing 2-1.
Kingwood Park beat Porter 8-1 last March and then fell 6-5 in April. Papadimitriou homered twice in the win and totaled four RBIs in the win. Addi Gomez had two RBIs. In the loss, Minick had two RBIs and Brown drove in one run.
Kingwood Park’s Keilee Brown (22) leaps to slap hands with head coach Lindsay Gregory after homering last week against Crosby. (Chris Zorzi/SportCast Media)
