By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth baseball team went 1-4 during a busy five-game week.
The Patriots lost a pair of games to Adrian (see game stories elsewhere in the sports section), split a double-header against Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster in Heron Lake Friday, and lost a home decision to Murray County Central Tuesday.
H-BC-E was facing one of the top teams in Section 3A when it hosted the Rebels Tuesday.
MCC scored four runs in the first two innings and coasted to an 11-1 victory in a game that ended by the 10-run rule after six innings of play.
The Patriots were in striking position when Justin Van Maanen chased home Steve Swayze, who walked early in the bottom of the third, with a fielderÕs choice to make it a 4-1 difference.
MCC, however, blanked the Patriots the rest of the way while plating three runs in the fourth inning and four more in the sixth.
Van Maanen took the pitching loss for the Patriots. He yielded 11 runs and 10 hits while registering seven strikeouts in six innings of work.
Clint Roozenboom, Darin DeBoer, David Top and Paul Jess all singled for H-BC-E.
The Patriots dominated play while rolling to a 14-0 win over SSC-SV-RL-B during the first game of FridayÕs twin bill in Heron Lake. The hosts edged H-BC-E 3-2 in the nightcap.
A strong pitching performance by Top was the key to victory in Game 1.
Top twirled a five-inning shutout while yielding four hits. He fanned three batters.
H-BC-E supported its pitcher by scoring three runs in the first inning, two in the second, one in the third and eight in the fifth.
DeBoer, who was two-for-two at the plate, drove in a run with a single in the first inning. Top added a sacrifice fly and Van Maanen received an RBI for a ground out to make it a 3-0 difference.
DeBoer doubled home a run before scoring on a wild pitch in the second to make it 5-0, and Vlad Pastushenko singled home a counter in the third to make it 6-0.
The Patriots used six hits and three walks to produce eight runs in the fifth inning.
Roozenboom also had two hits for H-BC-E in the opener.
Game 2 was a nail-biter that went to SSC-SV-RL-B.
The hosts scored two runs in the first and one in the fourth to gain a 3-0 cushion.
H-BC-E countered with single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth but came up one run short in the scheduled five-inning contest.
Roozenboom, who had two hits in the finale, singled home H-BC-EÕs first run in the fourth inning. Kevin Van Batavia doubled and scored on TopÕs sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Van Maanen pitched all five innings in the finale. He recorded two strikeouts while yielding two hits.
The 2-4-1 Patriots host Bethany Christian for a double-header Monday.