Park Hill’s Caelin Bradford went 3-of-5 with one RBI in the Trojans’ 10-7 win over Camdenton on April 6.
CAMDENTON – The Laker Wood Bat Baseball Tournament was a competitive one with Park Hill (5-10) and Park Hill South (8-5) both going 2-1 at Camdenton High School on April 5 and 6.
The nearly three-hour trek southeast gave the Kansas City Suburban Conference Silver Division squads a chance to play teams out of the metro area. Park Hill opened with a 1-run loss before winning its last two, whereas Park Hill South lost its second game and came out victorious in the first and last.
The Trojans’ 5-4 loss to Poplar Bluff (10-5) not only marked the fourth consecutive defeat but also the seventh total one in their last eight tries. Being tied at three going into the top of the sixth inning, Travis Porter doubled to left field and Bryson Augustyn ran across home plate to give his team the first lead of the night.
Caelin Bradford – who was on the mound all game up to this point and had struck out four batters – walked two batters and gave up a pair of hits in the bottom of the sixth inning as Poplar Bluff tied it. Nicholas Huckabey relieved him, striking out his first two batters but walking in the game-winning run with the bases loaded.
Park Hill responded with back-to-back wins for the first time this season on April 6. The Trojans beat Pacific (8-3) 6-1 and Camdenton (4-6) 10-7.
In the first of the two wins, the Trojans scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning and sat on that lead. Huckabey and Porter had two hits and freshman Hayes Pratt struck out six batters in right over five innings.
In the final game of the tournament, Park Hill took advantage of five errors by its opponent and scored eight runs on seven hits. Bradford went 3-of-5 with one RBI and threw three strikeouts to earn the win.
Park Hill South also took down Camdenton, doing so by a score of 9-0 on April 5. Hayden Vizcarra, Carson Bjorn and Casen Lett all went 2-of-3 and Michael Good had just as many hits in one more at-bat.
Hagen McMahon, Jackson McDonald and Max Killoren all shared time on the mound. Combined, they only allowed three hits in the first Panther shutout win since 2022.
Park Hill South couldn’t get the job done against East Carter (9-5), falling 5-2 on April 6. The Panthers bounced back with a 10-7 win over Poplar Bluff behind a fourth inning, 3-RBI double by McDonald who went 2-of-3.