The Hillsboro Hawks Freshman Baseball team rocketed off to a nine-run lead in their 11-9 victory on Monday May 3rd against the Fox Warriors, despite falling behind 2-0 in the first inning.
The Hawks were able to capitalize on multiple Warrior errors to get Max Deranja and Jack Prince on base in the bottom of the second inning. Logan Johnston ripped a single into center field to score Deranja, then Sam Wahl hit into a fielder’s choice and Caleb Quigley singled to score Prince. Cohen Linderer tagged a bases-clearing triple to make the score 6-2 by the end of the second inning.
Wahl got the start for the Hawks, going four and two-thirds innings with two runs on five hits, two walks and an impressive nine strikeouts. Gavin Hite and Prince were called in for relief for the final two and one-third innings.
Fox was held quiet until the seventh, but the runs kept coming for the Hawks. Johnston ripped a double in the third and stole second, so all it took was a well-struck single from Wahl to score him and put the score at 7-2. Hillsboro plated two more runs in the fourth when Dom Sutton, Hite and Deranja hit a parade of singles to left field in a two out rally, with Sutton and Hite scoring on errors to make it 9-2.
Quigley roped a single into left field to start the fifth before Linderer legged out an infield hit of his own, and then immediately took second base after Quigley reached third on an error. Richard Wiethop grounded out, but it was enough to score Quigley. Sutton scored Linderer when he reached base on an error of his own and the Hawks ended the inning 11-2.
A series of walks and singles slowly chipped away at the Hillsboro lead one at a time, but the Hawks had built up enough of an advantage to beat the Warriors 11-9 to round out the season. Hillsboro had 12 hits in the game. Linderer, Johnston, Quigley, Sutton and Deranja all managed multiple hits over the course of the game.
The Hawks finish the season 11-6 with four of their last five games resulting in victories.
