By John Rittenhouse
The Hills Thunder came up empty in two attempts to post a victory in front of their home fans Sunday.
Hills' amateur baseball team hosted Pipestone and Luverne for an afternoon set.
Pipestone blanked the Thunder 5-0 in the opener, and Luverne toppled the hosts 16-5 in the second game.
Hills had four players slap two hits in Game 1 against Pipestone, but the Thunder couldn't produce any runs against the A's.
Pipestone blanked Hills in the seven-inning tilt while scoring single runs in the first, second, third, fifth and seventh frames to win by five.
Adam Hansen pitched all seven innings and took the loss for the Thunder. Hansen fanned one batter.
Matt Carroll, Eric Harnack, Matt Funke and Wade Jellema all went two-for-three at the plate. One of Jellema's two hits was a double.
Hills' scoreless stretch reached 10 innings for the day before it produced a run in the bottom of the fourth in Game 2 against Luverne.
Unfortunately for the Thunder, Luverne had plated seven runs by then and added nine more to win by 11 runs in six innings.
The Redbirds opened a 7-0 lead by scoring once in the first and six times in the third before Hills came up with its first run of the day in the fourth.
Harnack drew a walk and scored the initial run when Funke singled to make it a 7-1 game.
Luverne ended up scoring the next nine runs (three in the fifth inning and six in the sixth) to extend its lead to 15 runs (16-1).
Hills, however, scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it an 11-run difference at game's end.
Funke, the lone Thunder player to pick up two hits in the game, started the bottom of the sixth by clubbing a solo homer over the left-center field fence.
Hansen reached base on an error and moved to third when Jellema singled before scoring on Justin Van Maanen's fielder's choice.
Carroll and Jarud Lang capped the four-run rally by supplying RBI singles.
Chad Rauk worked the first three and one-third innings on the mound, taking the loss for the Thunder. Hansen tossed one and two-thirds innings, while Lang pitched one frame.
The losses left Hills with a 2-11 record for the season.
The Thunder play Windom and Heron Lake and noon and 2 p.m. respectively Sunday in Jackson.