Hard times continue for Post 366 baseball team years ago
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
One thing Hillsboro American Legion Post 366 baseball team has to be hard up for these days is good news.
That's that they won't have to see June 9's overpowering opponent, Manhattan Post 17, again this season.
The bad news is a 15-0 and 14-6 sweep by Post 17 still keeps 366 on the rampage for its first win at 0-6.
Thursday's temperature in Hillsboro was in the low 80s.
But Post 366's game looked like it was suffering from a bad case of heat stroke all the way around.
Manhattan is a good enough team not to need a boost to win, still, they got plenty of it with the game coming unglued on 366 in the bottom of the second and starter Chad Hughbanks.
Already up 1-0 heading into the top of the second, Post 17 took advantage of four 366 errors, three free passes, and hits to put the game out of reach.
Manhattan put up six more runs in the fourth inning to leave 366 in jeopardy of being done early.
Post 17 got its final run in the fifth while 366's biggest and only offensive spark was Tyler Goldsby's double.
Due to a game two days earlier against Lyons, 366 was thin in the pitching rotation.
That made it Justin Moore's turn to have the game come a part on him early in the nightcap.
And it did with Moore walking two and beaning one to load the bases up with no outs.
Moore and 366 escaped potential disaster with only two runs scoring on a base hit.
The game worsened to 5-0 by the time Jared Fish got 366 out of the hitting slump in the bottom of the third with an RBI single.
Post 366 could only manage five for the game and six on the night
Anything Hillsboro could do, though, Manhattan could do, and lots more, exploding for six runs in the fifth inning to take a commanding 12-1 lead.
In danger of being run-ruled again, 366 kept the game alive with a four-run fifth.
Goldsby scored a two-run bases loaded single and Derek Hamm drove in Goldsby to cut the lead to 12-5.
Manhattan swiped its final two runs in the top of the sixth before Brett McIntosh wrapped up 366's scoring entirety on an error.
Post 366 suffered another pair of hard losses June 7 in Hillsboro against Lyons, 11-7, and 6-2.
Up next for 366 is a 6 p.m. rematch in Hillsboro at Memorial Park against Peabody, who handed 366 its first defeats of the season.
