Park Hill’s Brandon Jones leads off while Park Hill South’s Brock Harmon prepares for then next batter in the Trojans 10-0 win on May 3.
PARKVILLE – Over the course of the last 15 years, Park Hill (12-18) and Park Hill South (11-17) have matched up 31 times without a double-digit shutout until the most recent one on May 3.
Park Hill took control early and beat Park Hill South 10-0 to sweep the season series. Two of the Trojans’ three shutout wins this year have been against the Panthers, including a 4-0 win on April 9.
Prior to the 10-0 win, the largest shutout in the series since 2009 belonged to Park Hill on April 8, 2013, by a score of 7-0. The only other time there was a double-digit margin of defeat in the last 15 years was last season when Park Hill South won 15-3 on April 24, 2023.
The first inning was kind to Park Hill, which saw two hits, four walks, one error and five runs scored. The sole error happened in the first at-bat to help Nicholas Huckabey reach first base.
Tyson Kiser singled and Caelin Bradford walked to load the bases to set up an RBI single by Kaeden Pak. Park Hill South sophomore pitcher Carson Bjorn walked in two runs in addition to Bradford scoring on a Ryan Quigley groundout and a sacrifice fly by Travis Porter sending Pak home.
Bjorn closed out the first inning with a strikeout and doubled for one of the Panthers’ two hits of the game in the bottom but was left on base. Gionvanni Fatino went to the mound to start the second inning where he had two of his three strikeouts before letting up two hits in the third inning and was replaced by Quinton Chindamo in the fifth inning.
Park Hill ended up replicating the first inning in the sixth inning with five runs to make the score 10-0. The game didn’t go into a seventh inning due to the insurmountable deficit.
Kiser, Bradford and Pak all singled – scoring two runs in the process – and Bryson Augustyn stepped up to the plate and delivered. He made contact and the ball sailed over the left field fence for a three-run home run in what was the first at-bat after yet another Park Hill South pitching change, this time for Hagen McMahon.
The Trojans ended the day with nine hits to go with freshman Hayes Pratt’s five strikeouts. Kiser, Pak and Augustyn all had two hits.
The Trojans kept it rolling with a 5-4 win over Lee’s Summit North (10-22) thanks to three runs in the seventh inning and a walk-off 2-RBI single by Kiser on May 6. On the same day, the Panthers fell 11-0 to Staley (24-8) to mark their seventh consecutive defeat.
The regular season is winding down and although postseason seedings haven’t been announced yet, Park Hill and Park Hill South will both be in the Class 6 District 8 Tournament. The Trojans have two more regular season games against Liberty North (25-8) and Kearney (23-7), while the Panthers end the season with a Class 2 opponent in Mid-Buchanan (16-6) on May 8.