Hillsboro?s softball fortunes swung from nail-biter to blowout as the Trojans swept a pair of make-up games from Halstead Thursday at the Sports Complex.
The home team came from behind to beat Halstead 5-4 in nine innings, then exploded in Game 2 for a 16-1 win in three innings to improve to 10-2 for the season.
The first game was a battle from the start as Hillsboro?s Courtney Weber and Halstead?s Aubrie VanSteenburg battled in a pitching duel.
Halstead broke the ice with a pair of runs in the top of the third, but Hillsboro came right back to tie it in the bottom of the inning on Weber?s two-run single up the middle.
Hillsboro took the lead in the fourth when Taylor Nikkel singled, stole second and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Krista Reimer. But Halstead tied the game in the sixth with the help of a Trojan error.
Both teams missed scoring opportunities late in the game, but Halstead broke through with a run in the top of the ninth with the help of another Trojan error.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Nikkel doubled down the left-field line and came home on Tena Loewen?s double. After Loewen moved to third on a fly out, clean-up hitter Sammy Koons walked. Reimer followed with a single to right to bring Loewen home.
?Krista had her chance to get a game-winning hit and she came through, going with the pitch,? coach Stephanie Sinclair said of the opposite-field hit. ?We work on this every day and she executed it well.?
Weber pitched the whole game, surviving a potentially dangerous play at the plate when she was upended by a Halstead runner trying to go after a wild pitch. The junior right-hander scattered 12 hits, walked three and struck our four.
?The girls hit the ball well all night,? Sinclair said. ?We never lost confidence after we fell behind.?
Halstead scored the first run of Game 2, but it was all Hillsboro afer that. The Trojans, facing a different picher, scored eight runs on six hits, two walks and two Dragon errors in the bottom of the first, then added seven more in the second inning to make short work of the nightcap.
In all, the Trojans pounded out 13 hits while Weber limited Halstead to two hits to raise her record to 10-1.
?We came out fired up and eager to get the lead and keep it,? Sinclair said. ?Halstead has some very good players and we were pleased with these wins.?
Coming?Hillsboro was scheduled to host Sterling for a doubleheader Tuesday, then will play at Haven next Tuesday.
