Trojans split home opener Friday

Hillsboro?s Micah Allen steals home during the third inning against Little River Friday. Hillsboro split its season-opening doubleheader. The play was actually a double steal.A five-run sixth inning carried Hillsboro to an 8-4 win and a split of their season-opening doubleheader with Little River Friday at Memorial Field.

Little River, who came in ranked seventh in Class 2A, won the opener, 6-5.

With sophomore pitcher Dylan Nelson (1-0) throwing four no-hit shutout innings in Game 2, Hillsboro built a 3-0 lead on single runs in the second, third and fourth innings.

Little River got on the board in the fifth, but the Trojans took command in their next at-bat.

Austin Cross reached on an error to lead off, but was tagged out on a ground ball by Justus Hilliard. The Trojans then got consecutive singles from Nelson, Caleb Bettles, Braden Vogt and Micah Allen, plus a fifth single by Jordan Faul later in the inning to cap the five-run, five-hit inning.

Allen, Cody Delk and Nelson each finished with two hits for the game.

Coach Doug Dick was pleased with Nelson?s five-inning performance on the mound.

?Dylan did an awesome job pitching,? Dick said. ?He had no walks and was around the (strike) zone the whole night. You can?t ask for more than that.?

In the opener, Little River jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Trojan starter Austin Cross walked the first two hitters he faced. Tevin Renken drove them home with a double and later scored on a sacrifice bunt.

Cross completed three innings with one hit, six strikeouts and three walks.

Neither team found a way to score again until Hills?boro erupted for five runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Trojans managed only two hits against Renken, the Redskin starter, but benefited from three Little River errors.

The Trojans? lead didn?t last long, though. With Jordan Faul pitching in relief, the Red?skins managed single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to eek out the victory.

Hillsboro managed only three hits against Renken. David Dick accounted for two of them and drove in two runs.

?First game out, there were a lot of question marks in how we would do,? Coach Dick said. ?We?re inexperienced in some places and it?s going to show.

?In some areas we need to get better, and we will,? he added. ?I saw some good things. We only got three hits in the first game, but we scored five runs. We did a good job of playing small ball.?

He also praised the Trojans? defense, which committed only two errors during the evening.

Coming?The Trojans were scheduled to play a doubleheader at Nickerson on Tuesday, then will get the rest of the week off. They return to action next Tuesday at Smoky Valley.

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