By DON HUNT

Of the Mail Tribune

The scouting report on the South Medford Panthers as the season began: They're young (five sophomores in starting lineup), they can't hit a lick and outside of Steve Bechler, their pitching staff is mediocre at best.

Sounds like a baseball team destined for the bottom half of the standings, doesn't it?

Well, the Panthers lived up to that reputation through the first four games of play in the Southern Oregon Conference. They went 1-3, hit less than .200 as a team and looked lost when Bechler wasn't on the mound.

But Bechler and fellow seniors Travis DeManby and Eric Hanson willed their whisker-free teammates into believing in themselves, and now the Panthers find themselves in the hunt for the SOC title.

Tony Conklin drove home DeManby with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday at Miles Field as the Panthers edged Mazama 5-4 to complete another SOC sweep.

Bechler was his dominant self in the opener, firing a three-hitter with 15 strikeouts as South Medford cruised to a 6-1 victory.

The twin wins were the Panthers' seventh and eighth in succession and lifted them to 9-3 in the SOC as they remained in a tie with Crater for second place, a game in back of North Medford. Mazama fell to 7-5 in league play.

North and South (11-6 overall) meet next Saturday at Miles in a noon doubleheader.

"This was huge," Bechler said. "If we're going to have chance at winning the conference, we needed a sweep today.

"No one gave us a chance to be in this position this late in the season, but our young guys are playing great. And they just keep getting better."

None played better Saturday than Conklin, the Panthers' left fielder who delivered the winning hit in the second game. Conklin blasted a pitch from Mazama's Joe Strong that rolled all the way to the center-field wall, scoring DeManby from first base. DeManby had gotten aboard on a walk.

"I was looking for a good pitch to hit and he gave me one -- a fastball down the middle," said Conklin, who went 2-for-2 on the day with four walks and a sacrifice fly. "I was hoping to just move DeManby into scoring position, but when I came around first and saw the ball rolling to the wall I knew DeManby would score."

South Medford held a 4-1 lead through five innings of the second game, but the Vikings erupted for three runs in the top of the sixth to tie it. Jake Nelson's sacrifice fly and Tyler Starkey's two-run double accounted for the runs.

South Medford failed to score in the bottom of the sixth, but an incident involving Hanson lit a fire under the Panthers and may have aided their game-winning rally in the seventh.

Hanson had to be restrained by coaches and teammates from charging Strong -- the Mazama pitcher -- after Strong allegedly made a disparaging remark to the South Medford player after he popped out to first base to end the sixth.

Hanson continued his fury in the South Medford dugout and was thrown out of the game by umpire Louie Ramirez.

"There's no way we as coaches we condone that type of behavior," South Medford coach Dennis Allen said. "Eric has to keep his composure better than that.

"But it did fire the kids up. The whole dugout came alive for the seventh inning."

Allen said he likely would have suspended Hanson for a game, but since Hanson returned to the dugout afterwards and apologized to the team he probably won't.

"But there could be a school district policy concerning this," Allen said. "It's something we'll need to look into."

Junior left-hander Graham Foster scattered six hits to notch the second-game win.

Hanson's tantrum wasn't the only emotionally-filled episode during the twin bill. Bechler said he was intentionally kicked three times by Mazama runners crossing first base in the second game.

"I put my foot on the outside of the bag like I always do, and they could across the bag and kick me," Bechler said. "I know they were doing it on purpose. Those guys are punks."

Mazama coach Pete Whisler .....

Bechler allowed just three hits in the opening game but lost his shutout when he yielded a walk to Brad Vest and singles to Kyle Michaelis and Jake Nelson in the fourth.

But Bechler finished strong, striking out the side in the sixth and seventh innings to run his record to 6-1.

Bechler helped his cause at the plate in the first game, smashing a two-run triple in the Panthers' four-run fifth inning that broke the game open.

FIRST GAME

Mazama ..................................000 100 0 -- 1 3 1
South Medford .....................101 040 x -- 6 7 1

Eklund, Yahae (5) and Nelson. Bechler and Shine. W -- Bechler (6-1). L -- Eklund. 2B -- SM: Haag. 3B -- SM: Bechler.

SECOND GAME

Mazama .................................000 013 0 -- 4 6 2
South Medford..................... 010 030 1 -- 5 8 2