Panther first baseman Pat Barron dives, but can’t come up with a ground ball in the hole during the 4-2 Panther loss to the Hanover Indians at the high school on Saturday.

“We’re in a tournament situation right now,” said head coach Pat Forbes. “It’s going to be tough but we have to look at what we bring.”

The Panthers hosted the Indians on Saturday and, despite a strong outing on the mound from Jake Ruoff, fell to Hanover 4-2.

The Indians took a the lead in the first inning on a pair of singles and went up 2-0 in the second inning thanks largely to three Whitman-Hanson fielding errors, one by Ruoff and two by third baseman Wayne Molanari.

Whitman-Hanson was held hitless until Ryan Benton led off the fourth inning with a single. After Beau Barnes reached on an error, Molanari flied out to the second baseman, but the Hanover fielder threw the ball away trying to double Barnes off first, which allowed Benton to score.

Whitman-Hanson tied the game in the fifth on another Hanover error when John Bilunas tried to bunt Nathan Nuby over to third base and the Indians threw away the ball. The Panthers looked poised to take the lead when Brett Goldman was hit in the back by the throw on the next play, but the umpire said Goldman was out of the base path and sent Bilunas back to second.

“I think it was a bad call and it made a huge difference, but it was not the difference in the game,” Forbes.

The Indians took the lead on a throwing error by Goldman and added another insurance run in the seventh in another game Forbes said typified the Panthers season.

“We’ve been in games that we just can’t finish,” he said. “This has been the story of our year. This is not unusual and that’s what’s frustrating.”

Forbes also put some of the blame for Whitman-Hanson’s continuing mental errors on himself. “They’re a good group of kids and it’s my job to get them to win these games,” 

Ruoff mixed a curveball and high fastball to keep the Hanover hitters out in front of his change-up all game.

“He’s pitched some great games and had no support offensively or defensively,” Forbes said. “He pitched a great game, I just feel bad for the kid.”

The Panthers jumped out to an early lead against Falmouth, but the bats faltered late in the game in a 6-3 loss Tuesday on the road.

Bilunas got the start and helped his own cause with a two-run double in the top of the first, but Falmouth came back to tie it in the bottom of the inning.

Whitman-Hanson went up 3-2 on an RBI single by Nuby that scored Pat Barron in the third inning, but the Clippers took the lead for good with a two-run fifth inning and added an insurance run in the sixth.

While Forbes said the Panthers played a better fundamental game against the Clippers, the clutch hit again eluded them.

“They just hit better than us,” he said. “They got the hit when they needed it and we couldn’t come up with it when we needed it.”

The loss puts the Panthers at 6-9 with five games left to play. The tournament berth will hinge on the Panthers reaching the .500 plateau or finishing second in their division in the Atlantic Coast League where they are currently in third place and trail second-place Quincy by one game. The Panthers hoped to pull even with Presidents and avenge a 4-2 loss to Quincy with a win on Wednesday and use that as a stepping-stone to the post season.

“Its nice to have a shot at the team right in front of you,” Forbes said. “This is a team we can beat and we might be able to spring off that and keep going into the tournament.”