The softball and baseball teams from Hillsboro High School made quiet exits from their respective state tournaments Friday evening.
The softball team lost to perennial power Thomas More Prep 10-0 in a six-inning run-rule contest, while the baseball team fell to Galena, 6-2.
In both games, the Trojans managed only a single hit.
SOFTBALL
For the softball team, that one hit was a moral victory as TMP pitcher Kayle Hoffman, reportedly, had allowed only one or two hits the entire season. Franny Gottsch accomplished the hit for HHS in the fourth inning when she beat out an infield roller.
The Monarchs, two-time defending state champions who came in with a 23-0 record this season, got two over-the-fence home runs, one from Alicia Hammeke off Gottsch in the first inning with Hoffman on base, and the other from Sophia Schippers, who hit her solo shot off of Courtney Webber in the bottom of the fifth inning.
With the loss, the HHS softball Trojans ended a successful season with a 13-11 record and the first state-tournament experience in program history.
BASEBALL
For the baseball team, the one-hit performance was a disappointment. Hillsboro made use of its hit in the top of the first inning to post a 2-0 lead. With one out, Jacob Edwards was hit by a pitch thrown by starter Dakota Walker, and advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches. Meanwhile, Daniel Jost walked and stole second. Tyler Ediger then produced a single that drove home both runners.
Ediger, who started on the mound for HHS, made that lead stand until the bottom of the fourth, when the Bulldogs scored two runs on three successive hits — a lead-off single by Troy Albright, a double by Walker and a single by Dillion Katzer.
The big inning for Galen came in the fifth when they combined five hits with a Trojan error, resulting in three runs and a 5-2 lead.
By then Walker had settled into a groove. HHS got a runner as a far as third base in the fourth inning, when Ediger walked and pinch runner Luke Moore stole second and made it to third on a wild pitch. But he got caught in a rundown between third and home on a ground out by Ben Bebermeyer to end the threat.
Walker struck out seven Trojans, five of them on called third strikes, to secure the win for Galena. Ediger was the losing pitcher with Jacob Edwards pitching the final two outs of the sixth. With the loss, Hillsboro ended its season with an 17-6 record, plus a bye victory in regionals.
