By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth baseball team was unable to snap what now stands as a seven-game losing streak when the Patriots played their final regular season game Thursday.
The Patriots hosted Red Rock Conference foe Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin in what they hoped would be a momentum-builder for post-season play.
Any positive thoughts the Patriots took into the game quickly vanished as the Wolverines saddled the hosts with a 14-0 setback.
H-BC-E ends the regular season with a 3-10 overall record and a 3-9 conference mark.
The Patriots drew the 12th seed for the Section 3A Tournament and will open post-season play in Eden Valley Saturday. H-BC-E plays No. 5 Lakeview at noon to open the double-elimination event.
Depending on the outcome of Game 1, the Patriots will play a second game Saturday against No. 4 Eden Valley-Watkins or No. 13 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg.
H-BC-E will need to turn in a more inspired performance in Eden Valley than they did against ML-B-O to advance in tournament play.
A pair of ML-B-O pitchers blanked the Patriots through five innings while limiting the hosts to one hit (a single by second baseman Chris Tiesler).
The game started off in a bad way for the Patriots when starting pitcher Lyle DeBoer was touched for three runs in the top of the first. DeBoer was struck by a line drive in the foot during the inning, and he left the game with a possible broken toe after his at bat in the bottom of the first.
Justin Van Maanen pitched the next two and one-third innings for the Patriots. He was charged with allowing nine runs (five in the third inning and six in the fourth).
David Top relieved Van Maanen during the fourth inning and recorded the final five outs of a game that ended by the 10-run rule after five innings of play.