The Panthers maintained their unbeaten start to the new baseball season with two more wins on Tuesday to advance to the championship game at Montgomery HIgh’s A.L. Rabinovitz tournament.

And the two games were polar opposites.

McKinleyville opened the day with a narrow 2-1 win over Analy and followed that with a wild 27-23 win over the host school in eight innings.

Game one was a tight affair, with Joe Tanno hitting an RBI double to score what would be the winning run after Tate Saso opened the Panthers’ account with a solo home run.

Saso finished 2-for-4, while hard-hitting teammate Hunter Carper was 3-for-4 with two doubles.

Tanno, Jake Brunner and Ruger Baxter each also went 1-for–3 in the win, while Bode Reininger was 1-for-2.

Tanno also pitched five innings for the victory on the mound, giving up one run on three hits and striking out five, before Saso threw the final two innings for the save.

The impressive Saso continued to have a big impact in game two, finishing 3-for-5 with three RBIs and hitting his second home run of the day.

The Panthers led early and were on the verge of ending the game on the 10-run rule after opening up a nine-run advantage, but the host Vikings would come storming back to make a game of it.

“In that second game, we had some errors and it was slugfest,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said.

After seeing their early advantage slip away, the Panthers trailed by four going into the seventh but would tie things up with four runs in the inning.

They then held the Montgomery bats scoreless in the bottom half of the inning to force the extra inning and scored five more in the top of the eighth to take control again.

And this time they made it stick.

As you would expect in such a high-scoring game, several McKinleyville players made some noise at the plate.

Carper continued to impress and finished 3-for-5 with a double and three walks, while Reininger went 3-for-4 and drove in six runs.

Baxter (2-for-2, RBI), Pat Wilson (2-for-4, two RBIs), Rhythm Green (2-for-5) and freshman Carson Hicks (2-for-4, three RBIs) each also had multiple hits in the win.

Dobrec used several pitchers in the game, with Hicks getting his first high-school win in relief.

Brunner (1-for-2, two RBIs), Tanno (1-for-3, RBI), Tyson Marshall (1-for-5, RBI) and Blake Santos (1-for-5, RBI) each also had a base hit in the win.

The Panthers, who will play Ukiah for the tournament championship on Wednesday afternoon at 4, are now 7-0 on the season.

Saso is hitting a team-best .483, while Carper is hitting .462 and Baxter .438.