The Miami Trace varsity baseball team was looking to consolidate its lead atop the Frontier Athletic Conference standings when they visited Hillsboro for a game against the Indians Friday afternoon.
The Panthers were coming off a 7-0 win over McClain on Wednesday.
Friday, Miami Trace had an early 2-0 lead, but Hillsboro rallied with five runs in the fourth and that stood as the final, 5-2.
For the Panthers on the mound, Austin Mathews started and pitched six innings, suffering the loss. He allowed five hits and five runs (all earned) with four walks and six strikeouts.
Ethan Humphries started for the Indians (4-4 FAC, 6-9 overall). He pitched seven innings with two runs (both earned) on seven hits. Humphries walked one and struck out eight. He hit one batter.
Hillsboro drew three walks to start the home fourth, then, as Panthers’ head coach Rob Smith said, “a couple of defensive mistakes and a couple of hits with it. That’s how they got their five.
“It’s like I told the kids,” Smith said. “We’re not good enough to come out and beat any team if we don’t play fundamental baseball. Other than the one inning, defensively, we played good baseball.
“But, we missed our chances early,” Smith said. “We had a chance to break the game open early, but we didn’t. And their pitcher settled down and pitched a great game and we had some mental lapses. They capitalized and we didn’t.”
In the first for the Panthers, Drew Batson singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Cody Brightman.
In the top of the second, Dalton Mayer was hit by a pitch and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Mathews.
Offensively for Miami Trace: Brady Wallace, 1-4; Drew Batson, 3-4, 1 2b, 1 run; Josh Gilmore, 2-4; Heath Cockerill, 1-2, 1 bb; Cody Brightman, 0-2, 1 sac fly, 1 rbi; Austin Brown, 0-3; Dalton Mayer, 0-2, hbp, 1 run; Gavin Taulbee, 0-3; Austin Mathews, 0-2, 1 rbi, 1 sac fly.
Offensively for Hillsboro: Luke Magulac, 0-3, 1 run; Payton Bell, 0-2, 1 run; Mason Stanley, 0-1; Grant Crum, 1-1, 1 run; Kelton Anderson, 1-3, 1 run; Ethan Watson, 1-3, 1 run; Jared Thompson, 1-3; Hayden Haines, 0-2; Phillip Mycroft, 1-3; Justin Scott, 0-3.
Chris Hoppes is the Sports Editor for the Record-Herald in Washington Court House.
