Hillsboro teams 1st, 3rd at tournament<p><p>The Hillsboro 10-&-Under softball team coached by Eddie Weber and Steph Sinclair defeated Chase County in a two-game Cottonwood Valley League championship series by a score of 2-1 on June 28. Hillsboro lost the first game of the series 1-0. The team finished with a 7-2 season record and a 3-1 record in the tournament. Shelley Arnold was chosen as most valuable player. Pictured are: back row (from left) coach Eddie Weber, Madeline Brown, Allison Weber, Taylor Vogt, Shayla Hannah, Ali Blazek, coach Steph Sinclair; front row, Kennedy Lucero, Julie Sinclair, Patience Salas, Shelley Arnold, Karyn Leihy, Hannah Bostic. The Hillsboro 10-&-Under team, coached by Chad Nowak and Todd Klein, placed third in the tournament.
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Hillsboro pitcher Jake Liles (right) and Daniel Jost talk about the nice catch Jost made on a short pop-up that cut short a Lyons rally early Friday night. The catch preserved a 3-2 Hillsboro lead. Post 366 built the lead to 12-3 but fell one play short of salting away the win, losing 13-12.
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With the hope of playing for a berth in the state tournament, a shorthanded Hillsboro team traveled to Lyons for the first night of this weekend’s Babe Ruth District IV baseball tournament.
The Peabody also made the trip, and finished as tournament runner-up.
“We were missing a number of important guys coming in, but we thought that if we were still in it on Sunday, we’d have a chance,” coach Tim Hein said.
Legion Post 366 was without the services of ace pitcher Travis Riesen until Sunday, and was without three others during a 13-12 loss on Friday night.
Three more players were unavailable Saturday, leaving the team unable to field the minimum of nine.
The result was a season-ending forfeit to Peabody.
“We knew we would have a number of guys away with weddings, church camps, family vacations, that sort of thing,” Hein said. “So when we had one guy not able to make it because of something unexpected, we were down to eight.”
The 2007 Mid-Kansas League championship swim meet was held Saturday in Council Grove. Peabody finished second among nine teams with 332 1⁄2 points and Hillsboro was fourth with 175 1⁄2 points. Lindsborg won the title with a score of 352.
Despite the cancellation of Monday’s game against Hesston, Legion Post 366 gathered at Memorial Field to swap its regular season garb for the uniforms of the Babe Ruth District 4 wildcard tournament and to snap a team photo. The tournament, to be played at Lyons, begins Friday. Back row: (from left) coach Bill Fish, Alfonse Klenda, Alex Nuss, Dan Jost, Aaron Stepanek, coach Tim Hein. Front row: Tyler Ediger, Dan Berg, Jacob Edwards, Mitchell Koop, Jake Liles. Not pictured: coach Joe Alvarez, Jacob Fish, Travis Riesen, Dustin Strunk and JD Tippin. Andrew Ottoson / Free Press. Click image to enlarge.
The Hillsboro American Legion Post 366 baseball team added a pair of losses to its record last week, and then had its final tuneups of the regular season canceled by rain.
Post 366 stumbled to a 0-for-Tuesday evening at home against Herington, losing 2-1 and 13-3. The team’s regular season record stands at 12-6.
“We lost our focus after we lost the first game,” coach Tim Hein said. “(Herington) threw their two best pitchers at us and we didn’t come through against them. We loaded the bases a few times, but didn’t find ways to score runs.”
“We’re going to face decent pitching, but no real aces this weekend, so it will be a similar challenge,” he added.
Hillsboro’s trip to Moundridge was nixed by sloppy weather on Thursday. On Monday, the team’s game with Hesston was called off.
On Friday, Hillsboro will travel to Lyons for a 6 p.m. contest in the first round of the Babe Ruth District 4 double-elmination wildcard tournament. Peabody plays afirst-round game against Salina Martinell’s at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Lyons.
The second day of play begins at 3 p.m. on Saturday, and the tournament champion will be decided on Sunday at 5 p.m.
