Panthers sweep preseason road trip

Two games, two days, two wins.

They may have been preseason games, but the Kitchener Panthers will take the boost in confidence going into this Sunday's 2026 season opener in Toronto.

On Thursday, the Panthers battled back from a 6-0 deficit to take down London 9-7 in front of a school day crowd.

After picking up three in the fourth inning, Yosvani Penalver hit a two-run double in the fifth.

In the sixth, Trent Lawson launched a two-run home run to take the lead. Raffi Gross followed that up with a two-run shot of his own in the same inning.

Samuel Quintana and Evan Elliott each saw three innings of work on the hill.

Bawin Colon finished things off in the seventh for the save.

Saturday night, Mateo Zeppieri played hero with a go-ahead two-run home run as Kitchener beat the Barnstormers 7-5 in Chatham-Kent.

Kitchener had a 4-0 lead, but the Barnstormers slowly chipped away and got a 5-4 lead.

Zeppieri's bomb to right field made it 6-5. Charlie Towers' groundout in the ninth brought in an insurance run from third to round out the scoring.

Jake Liberta got the first three innings on the bump. Cory Lawson saw the next two, followed by Brett Reid in the sixth, seventh and eighth. Colon worked a scoreless ninth to lock in his second preseason save.

Kitchener begins its 2026 regular season in Toronto at 2 p.m. Sunday.