BANGOR– In a battle of two of the premier pitchers in the Scenic Bluffs Conference, Bangor and senior Canon O’Heron outdueled Hillsboro and Tyler Crandall Monday afternoon.
O’Heron struck out 11 and allowed just two runs in complete game victory as the Cardinals pulled out a 3–2 win over the visiting Tigers.
Crandall (3–2) pitched well, but suffered the loss allowing two earned runs on five hits in six innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Bangor’s Jack Reader singled and scored in the second on Josh Beron’s fielder’s choice ground out to open the scoring.
O’Heron had an RBI single to pate Seth Zabel in the third.
Drew Johnson reached on an error to start the fourth, moved to third on a Beron single and scored on David Straub’s sac fly to make it 3–0.
Hillsboro scored both its runs in the sixth inning. Freshman James Anderson singled, moved to second on passed ball, and scored on Crandall double. Crandall scored on a Matt Stekel single.
With the loss, Hillsboro fell to 4–6 overall and 3–5 in the Scenic Bluffs.
The Tigers will travel to Cashton (5–7, 4–6 SBC) today before hosting Burlington Catholic Central (3–7) in a non-conference game on Saturday. Hillsboro will then host Brookwood (5–4, 5–3) on Monday.
Burlington Catholic Central is the alma mater of Hillsboro first-year head coach Ryan Budnik. BCC is coached by Budnik’s high school coach, Tom O’Connell, who is currently fifth for active coaches in the state of Wisconsin with 503 wins entering the season.
La Farge Tournament
This past Saturday, Hillsboro split a pair of games at the La Farge Tournament.
The Tigers dropped their first game to the home team by the count of 5–4 in six innings (due to the time limit) before defeating SBC foe Wonewoc–Center in a non-conference game, 9–3 in six innings.
Hillsboro scored five runs in the top of the first in the game two win over the Wolves and never looked back.
Hunter Stanek was hit by a pitch with bases loaded to plate the first run, then Sawyer Hynek ripped a bases clearing double to make it 4–0.
Crandall tripled and scored on a fielder’s choice in the fourth to make it 6–0. Stanek walked and scored on a Stekel single later in the inning.
Ethan Thorson started and pitched two scoreless inning before giving way to Cody Hora and Stanek.
Hora (1–1) picked up the win in relief, allowing one earned run on three hits in three innings of work. He struck out three and walked three.
“We finally got some offense going jumping to a 5–0 lead in the first and never looked back,” said Budnik. “I was able to give our younger guys some extended playing time.”
La Farge scored all five of its runs in the first three innings and held on to win Saturday’s first game.
Stekel had an RBI single in the Hillsboro third to make it 3–2.
After La Farge added two runs in the bottom of the third, Stekel scored on an Anderson RBI single. Anderson stole second and moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a Hora single to pull the Tigers within a run.
Hillsboro left runners on second and third to end the inning.
Stanek walked to lead of the sixth and stole second, but was stranded and the game ended after six innings due to the time limit.
Necedah 4, Hillsboro 2
Last Thursday Hillsboro dropped a 4–2 SBC decision to visiting Necedah.
The Tigers committed three errors in the game that led to three unearned runs.
Crandall took the tough-luck loss after allowing four runs, only one earned, on four hits and two walks.
“We need to start doing the little things right to win baseball games,” said Budnik. “I’m not taking anything away from our opponents, but in each of our losses we have done things to beat ourselves. Base running mistakes, poor plate discipline, mental and physical errors. Overall we have played well, just have not been able to put together a complete game. It seems like we have that one inning that gets us.
“We had an opportunity to win every one of those games. A combination of a few mistakes and not being able to push runs through has been very costly.”
