HILLSBORO: Baseball squad sweeps Clay Center
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
With the regular season rapidly drawing to a close, the Trojans have a trio of games left to figure out how to keep their intensity level up for a full seven innings.
On more than one occasion, the Trojans have built up what would appear to be stable leads, only to end up giving some of it back to their opponent.
Sometimes that's caught up with Hillsboro, costing them chances to sweep.
It nearly did again in Tuesday's nightcap in Hillsboro between the Trojans and victory-starved Clay Center, when the Trojans let a 12-2 lead shrink to 12-6.
That seemed unfathomable after Hillsboro run-ruled the Tigers in the opener, 15-0, behind a combined three-hitter from pitchers Jerod Metcalf and Shawn Hughbanks.
But the Trojans blew the lid off in the bottom of the sixth, rallying for four runs off four hits to knock out the Tigers, 16-6.
"I think we started playing at their level a little bit," Trojan coach Phil Oelke said. "And our intensity dropped, certainly."
Coming off a split Friday against struggling Wichita Collegiate, the Trojans were able to work out Friday's flaws against the Tigers.
The Trojans threatened to blow the lid off right off the bat, decking six hits in the bottom of the first inning to take a commanding 8-1 lead.
In what seemed like an eternal first inning for the Tigers, a total of 14 Trojans went up to bat.
Shawn Hughbanks finished the day four for seven, driving in a game-high seven RBIs, including a pair of run-scoring triples and a three-run round tripper.
It was one of the two triples by Hughbanks that fueled the Trojans' eight-run onslaught in the first inning.
After Jared Fish singled in a run the bottom of the second to push Hillsboro's lead to 9-1, the Tigers slowly began to claw their way back into the game an inning at a time.
Two times the Trojans had the chance to run-rule the Tigers after five innings, but both times Hillsboro's defense didn't allow it to materialize.
The first chance came in the bottom half of the third with Dustin Jost and Graham Ratzlaff going deep on back-to-back homers to make it a 12-2 game.
The game came as close to coming unraveled as it ever would on the Trojans in the top of the fourth.
Doing a fair job of holding the Tigers at bay through three innings, Jost finally got knocked around, surrendering four more runs and loading the bases up with one out.
Reliever Steve Chisholm escaped the inning with no further damage inflicted as Clay Center had cut the lead in two.
Neither team scored in the fifth as Chisholm finally slammed the door on the Tigers.
"Jost was struggling finding the strike zone a little bit too," said Oelke of his team's problems in the nightcap. "But as soon as Chisholm got in there, we settled down."
Hillsboro still made quick work of the Tigers in six innings, rather than five.
Ben Walker doubled in Hillsboro's 13th run and Hughbanks popped a two-run single to leave Clay Center a run away from being done.
Ratzlaff's base hit made for the 16-6 final, giving Jost his second win of the year from on the mound.
"We didn't miss any offensive signals tonight," Oelke said. "Last Friday we missed probably six, maybe seven, and we communicated better."
The 9-5 Trojans face a nasty schedule the remainder of the week beginning Friday when they travel to Lindsborg to face the dangerous Smoky Valley Vikings.
On Saturday, Hillsboro hosts the scorching hot Lyons Lions in the April 8 makeup game in a noon start.
The Lions pulled off a huge upset Tuesday, nipping the Nickerson Panthers 1-0.
Hillsboro ends the regular season Tuesday when it hosts the Inman Teutons in a game slated for 4:30 p.m.
Wichita Collegiate
Poor execution and the inability of not being able to deliver a knockout punch were the biggest enemies of the Trojans Friday afternoon against the hosting Wichita Collegiate Spartans.
The Trojans' execution was foiled in the opener thanks to Spartan ace J.C. Bredengard.
Topping speeds of 90 miles per hour and a consistent thrower of high 80s, Bredengard held the Trojans in check in the opener, 7-1.
