Hillsboro grinds out sweep of Marion
Hillsboro overcomes fielding woes in the closer to hang on, 4-2
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Expect the unexpected.
Trojan baseball coach Phil Oelke might not need any convincing to heed that warning from now on.
Heading into the Trojans' season opener Thursday against hosting Marion, he expected to see an ugly defensive performance by his team.
The opener wasn't bad. Hillsboro pounced on Marion starter Robert Verbic in the first inning on its way to an 18-4 win.
The second game wasn't just ugly, ghastly might be a better word.
The Trojans must have been using the old can tied to a string to communicate in the finale.
Nevertheless, Hillsboro was able to overcome its fielding blunders to hold off the Warriors, 4-2.
"I thought in the first game, defensively, we didn't play too bad," Oelke said. "In the second game, we really just stunk it up. I said it would be pretty ugly, but I didn't think it would be quite this bad.
"Communication errors in the outfield, we booted some balls around in the infield and everybody struggled it seemed at one point or another."
Hillsboro put out a fair hitting display in the opener, talking a 6-0 lead off Verbic in the first inning from five of its 15 hits.
The Trojans' third and fourth runs came off walks before Dustin Jost drove in two more runs with a single.
Jost went 4 for 5 in the first game, driving in a game-high five RBIs.
He pushed the Warriors down 7-0, sparking a two-run third inning with another single.
James Bina's RBI single in the third left Marion two runs away of being run-ruled, giving the Trojans an 8-0 lead.
Bina went 2 for 4 in the starting game, finishing with a trio of RBIs.
Trojan starting pitcher Layne Frick's shutout blew up in the bottom of the third as Marion inched its way back into the game with a two-out two-run double from Verbic.
Frick still got the victory, firing a five hitter while fanning three Warriors.
The game came apart on Verbic in the fourth inning as Hillsboro gypped Marion for four of its eight runs coming off errors.
RBI singles from Kris Jones, Graham Ratzlaff and Ronn Coates combined with a sacrifice fly by Bina and the Trojans were on their way to a short game, leading 16-2.
Marion still didn't give up, cutting the lead to 16-4 with a pair of RBI doubles.
Jost capped off the Trojans' best performance in the opener with an RBI double that left Marion down, 17-4.
Frick scored the 18th run with a sacrifice fly.
The nightcap had to worry Oelke about how his team is going to fare when it goes up against a team with a good pitching rotation.
The key reason to be leery came from Warrior starter Mitch Enos.
"Enos is a good pitcher," said Oelke. "Definitely. He threw very well. We have to stop letting the pitcher control us when he's a good pitcher.
"We were letting him dictate when we were swinging the bat, more often than not was when we had two strikes and had to protect. We're going to have to avoid those types of situations."
The biggest knock against Enos came in the first inning as he gave up the Trojans' first run with a wild pitch.
Marion broke even at 1-1 to close out the first with pitcher Shawn Hughbanks throwing a wild pitch.
Hillsboro got some breathing room in the second, taking a 3-1 lead from a pair of RBI singles by Jones and Steve Chisholm.
The trouble for Hughbanks began in the third inning as he surrendered an RBI single which pulled Marion to 3-2.
The Warriors knocked out Hughbanks after he gave up his sixth hit in the fifth inning, causing Oelke to turn to reliever Jerod Metcalf.
Misjudgment in the field by the Trojans kept Marion hanging around the entire game.
Frick again scored the Trojans' final run with an RBI double that left Marion doubled up, 4-2, heading into the bottom half of the seventh.
Down to their last three outs, the Warriors still made it scary, getting the winning run to the plate and the tying run to second.
Metcalf dashed any hopes of a Warrior comeback, picking up both the victory and a save.
"We didn't score a lot of runs which is good because we're going to see some really tough teams in the next two-and-a-half weeks," Oelke said. "We never trailed at any point in the game, and that is important to the kids."
The Trojans' game against Lyons, which was scheduled for Tuesday, was canceled because of weather. Hillsboro travels Friday to Canton-Galva for a doubleheader with the Eagles.
