Trojans' bats come to live for season's first sweep
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports Writer
It's not exactly a hair-pulling task thinking about what has
gone right for Hillsboro baseball this season.
The Trojans have had to deal with bad weather setting
them behind schedule, sparse offense, and defense that
makes a lead hard to protect.
Despite a monotonous, gusting south wind Friday in
Hillsboro, the Trojans finally notched their first sweep of the season with 3-0 and 18-3 wins over the Sedgwick Cardinals.
Hillsboro (4-6) played a makeup game Monday at Wichita Collegiate, tumbling in both games, 12-8, and 7-4.
Hillsboro fell behind in the opening game, 5-0, but overtook the lead heading into the bottom half of the seventh, 8-8.
With two outs and the bases loaded, the Spartans got a grand slam for the win off Jacob Fish, who suffered the loss.
The nightcap was all tied up at 3-3 going into the bottom half of the fifth inning, but Collegiate doubled Hillsboro up with a three-run inning to pull away.
The Trojans will face a tough home test at 4:30 p.m. Friday against the Lyons Lions.
By now, the Lions might have lost nearly every player from their 2005 state champion team, and at least a few players from last year's state qualifier, but Trojan coach Phil Oelke still won't take them lightly.
Against Sedgwick, Travis Riesen fired a three-hit shutout in the opening game win. But Hillsboro could muster only three hits of its own.
But all that changed in the second game, as the Trojans blasted a season-high 18 hits en route to a mercy-rule-shortened, 18-3, victory.
Hillsboro senior pitcher Aaron Stepanek earned the win, despite falling behind, 1-0, in the top of the first inning.lsboro went ahead, 5-1, in the bottom of the first, then put the game on ice in the bottom of the second, as the Trojans collected seven hits and took advantage of six Sedgwick errors to go up, 13-2.
