Collinsville High School pitcher Kyle Reeves was having another fine outing Thursday, until consecutive fifth inning errors were committed behind him. The errors opened the floodgate to a four-run inning that led to O’Fallon’s 5-0 Southwestern Conference victory.

Kyle Reeves pitches to Dylan McEwen while an O’Fallon player prepares to bunt / Photo by Roger Starkey

The Panthers (8-1, 20-2 SWC conference) reached base in the fifth on a one-out walk. After runners reached on consecutive errors, scoring one run, and another reached on an infield single, Reeves induced a fly ball to shallow right field that was not deep enough to score the runners.

With the bases loaded and two outs, it appeared Reeves was on the verge of extricating his team from the bad situation with minimal damage. Instead, O’Fallon shut the door on the Kahoks (12-8, 5-4 SWC). Blake Deatherage singled home one run and Bradley Snyder drove home two more, to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead.

“You can’t give away outs to a good team,” Collinsville Head Coach Pete Trapp said.

Collinsville could not rally going against Deatherage, who pitched the game from the stretch position. Dylan McEwen, was on base all four plate appearances, the remainder of the team reached base seven times, but fell short in existing times.

The Kahoks best chance to score came in the bottom of the third when Mitch Reising attempted to score from third on a medium-range fly out. O’Fallon’s right fielder came up firing to easily get a slidding Reising at home. The Panthers tacked on another run in the seventh to make the final score 5-0.

Reeves pitched six innings, allowing the four runs, none earned. He was also hit with a batted ball in the top of the sixth. Jacob Grzywacz pitched the seventh and allowed a run.

Collinsville returns to action Saturday at 10 a.m. for a double header against Highland.