By John Rittenhouse
The 2001 baseball season came to an end for Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth team members after they took a pair of losses during the Section 3A Tournament over the Memorial Day weekend.
No. 5 Ortonville saddled the 12th-seeded Patriots with a 9-3 setback during SaturdayÕs first round in Benson.
H-BC-E's 3-11-1 campaign ended Monday in Adrian, where the Patriots dropped an 11-1 decision to the sixth-seeded Dragons.
The Patriots were outscored 7-0 in the first three innings of Saturday's game against Ortonville and couldnÕt recover while falling by six runs.
H-BC-E did trim the difference to four runs (7-3) by scoring two runs in the third inning and one in the fifth.
Ortonville, however, capped the scoring by plating two runs in the bottom to win by six.
The Patriots loaded the bases with a single by Justin Van Maanen and walks to Matt Buck and Zach Wysong during the fourth inning. Tyson Metzger singled home a pair of runs to make the difference 7-2 at the time.
Darin DeBoer singled and made it a 7-3 difference when he scored on an error in the fifth inning.
Wysong had two hits and drew a walk to lead the Patriots at the plate against Ortonville. David Top went the distance on the hill and took the loss.
Adrian scored nine unanswered runs in the final three innings to best the Patriots by 10 runs during MondayÕs elimination game in Adrian.
The game had the look of a tight match when the Patriots scored one run in the top of the third to cut the 2-0 AHS lead in half. The Dragons scored two runs in the bottom of the third, four in the fifth and three in the bottom of the sixth to win by the 10-run rule.
Vlad Pastushenko walked and Tyson Metzger singled to set the table for the Patriots during the third inning. Pastushenko scored what turned out to be his team's last run of the season when Paul Jess singled.
Lyle DeBoer worked the first three and one-third innings and took the pitching loss for H-BC-E. Top finished the game on the mound.