By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth Patriots bowed out of the Section 3A Baseball Tournament with a loss in Ortonville Monday.
Playing seventh-seeded Ortonville in an elimination game in the loser's bracket, the Patriots came up on the short end of a 4-1 score in what was a well-played contest.
The loss ended H-BC-E's 4-12 campaign.
The teams battled to a scoreless draw through two and one-half innings before the hosts scored three runs in the bottom of the third and one counter in the fourth to open a 4-0 cushion.
The score remained the same until the top of the seventh when H-BC-E's David Top tripled and scored when Justin Van Maanen bounced out as the inning progressed.
Van Maanen was tagged with the pitching loss for H-BC-E after yielding three runs in two and one-third innings of work on the mound.
Top relieved Van Maanen in the third inning and pitched three and two-thirds frames of one-run ball.
Top also set the pace at the plate by slapping a pair of hits.