Following a stagnant beginning to the spring, the Park Hill baseball team (5-9) has strung together four straight victories to win the Northland Tournament.
The opening three games of the tournament for Park Hill were tight, but it came out on top with a 3-1 win over Park Hill South (13-7), 5-2 victory over St. Joseph’s Central (6-8) and a 6-5 triumph over Oak Park (13-5). After taking down the Panthers on April 11, the Trojans matched up with St. Joseph’s Central for the second time this spring on April 12.
Jaxson Grayson had two hits and two RBIs to help ignite Park Hill to a 5-0 lead midway through the fourth inning. Grayson shared the mound with Garrison Mertz as the duo struck out five batters to lift the Trojans past the Indians for the fifth straight time, dating back to last season.
On the next day of the tournament, the Trojans had their closest margin of victory in the spring on April 13. Park Hill trailed 5-0 at the bottom of the sixth inning when it erupted for five runs.
After a pair of singles by Aiden Brooks and Grayson, an Oak Park error resulted in two Park Hill runs. Jake Daneff and Aiden Walter both had RBIs in the inning to tie the game at five.
The Park Hill baseball team has rattled off four consecutive victories after a 1-9 start to the season.
The Trojan defense forced three outs in the first three Northman batters in the ensuing inning before Luke Moore opened the bottom of the seventh inning with a double. Moore eventually reached third base, then scored the game-winning run off a balk.
Park Hill burst out 19 runs, and only allowed four runs, on 10 hits in the final contest of the Northland Tournament, a matchup with Truman (4-8-1) on April 14. The Trojans scored in all five innings – including six runs in the third inning – as Brooks, Grayson and Moore all had four hits on the day.