Park Hill South shortstop Bryan Wilhoite fields a ball in the Panthers’ 6-2 loss at Park Hill on May 5.
The Park Hill baseball team (12-15) got revenge against Park Hill South (17-15) – who beat the Trojans by 12 earlier this season – to snap a 4-game losing skid on May 5.
This is the second consecutive season that the rivals split the series as Park Hill South took the first matchup this spring with a 15-3 win on April 24. In round two, Park Hill erased a 2-0 deficit to come away with a 6-2 victory.
In the top of the second inning, Jase Johnson walked two of the first three Panthers to put two runners on base. Johnson threw three strikes to Aaron Boutz, but Jaxon Miller – the Park Hill catcher – dropped the third strike, and Brody Hufft scored on the error.
Michael Cook singled to center field on the ensuing at-bat to send Aidan Bui across home plate, putting Park Hill South ahead 2-0. The Trojans survived the inning and took a 3-2 margin – a lead that was never relinquished – in the bottom of the second inning on a 3-RBI double by Zane Baker.
The next two innings were scoreless until Maxx Houchins had an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning to make the score 4-2. Park Hill put the game away in the ensuing inning with back-to-back RBIs by Miller and Braydan Resch.
The Trojans outhit the Panthers eight to three, led by Baker with two hits and three RBIs. Johnson struck out seven Panthers in six innings and Resch had one strikeout out of three batters in the final inning.
For Park Hill South, Bryan Wilhoite, Brayden Wright and Cook all had one hit. Boutz was on the mound for right over four innings – striking out five batters along the way – and Christian Denig came in and struck out two Trojans in his relief.
At the time, Park Hill was coming off a 6-0 loss to Blue Springs South (24-3) on May 3 and a 3-2 loss to Lee’s Summit (12-18) on May 1. The Trojans were outscored 27-9 in their previous four games until taking down their cross-town rival.
Park Hill South had won its previous two games at the time, beating Lee’s Summit North (11-16) on May 1, and taking down Raymore-Peculiar (8-18) 9-1 on May 3 before falling 9-1 to Staley (20-12) on May 8. Park Hill used the win over Park Hill South as momentum, taking down Lee’s Summit North (11-17) on the road and coming out with an 8-3 triumph on May 8.
Before the matchup with the Trojans, the Panthers locked up the No. 4 seed in the Class 6 District 8 Tournament. Park Hill will be the No. 6 seed in the same tournament, which will be played at Creekside Baseball Complex.
Park Hill South will end regular season play with a matchup with Mid-Buchanan (12-10) – a Class 3 school – on May 10. Park Hill will host Platte County (15-17) on May 12.