Hillsboro ends history-making season as state runners-up

AKRON — The Hillsboro Lady Indians completed their history-making season as Division IV State Runners-Up, as they were defeated in the state championship game Thursday by the Kenton Ridge Lady Cougars, 9-0 at Firestone Stadium in Akron.  

Kenton Ridge ends their season with a perfect 32-0 record, while Hillsboro finishes their season at 23-4. 

The bottom of the third is where the game got away from Hillsboro and went in favor of Kenton Ridge, as they took advantage of multiple miscues made by HHS. 

The Lady Cougars scored seven runs in the bottom of the third with Hillsboro committing an error to start the inning, followed with a walk, then a hit by pitch to load the bases with no outs.

Next was a walk with the bases loaded, improving Kenton Ridge lead to 2-0. That was followed by a two-RBI single by Jayden Davis for a four-run lead. Then came a single by Ivee Rastatter for another run. Next came an infield error, and eventually the Lady Cougars held an 8-0 lead.

Hillsboro head coach Gary Breeden spoke about the season and the tournament run of the Lady Indians. 

"It's been unbelievable, as far as the ride this week through the regionals. This season has been one personally full of pride and love for these young ladies," Breeden said. "Not just the three that are here in the room (at the press conference), but every one of the kids in the program. They've done so much that we've asked, sometimes they've questioned it, sometimes they've went ahead and just 'here we go.' But the love and the pride I have in these young ladies, it's indescribable."

The bottom of the third saw Kenton Ridge total seven runs, two hits, two walks and a HBP, and the Lady Indians committed three errors.

Hillsboro went hitless in the first inning — as the top half of the inning ended in a double play — but the Lady Indians had a hit in the second.

The hit was by Isabelle Brunck as she led off with a single, and as she raced to second on a fielder’s choice hit by Addie Huff during the ensuing at-bat, she was initially called safe, but went off the base after the safe call to be tagged out. From there, HHS struck out in the next two at-bats to end the inning. 

Hillsboro in the top of the third had a one-out base hit on a 2-2 count off the bat of Rhianna Clemons, but a fielder’s choice and pop up to second ended the inning. 

Hillsboro’s fourth inning saw them reach the bases with a one-out single by Brunck, followed by a single by Huff, but neither runner was able to cross the plate with the inning ending with the runners stranded. 

Following a weather delay of 30 minutes, Kenton Ridge added one more run in the bottom of the fifth on a double by Kendall Massie to score Cara Cammon for the nine-run win.

"It's great. It really didn't come the way we wanted it to, but honestly, our community is awesome," Spruell said. "(Our community) came out three hours and supported us really well. And then I just think just would have been nice to bring home a win, but we got this far, but we needed to clean things up. It just didn't go our way."

Brunck and Addie Huff led the Lady Indians in batting, with both players going 2-for-3. Rhianna Clemons was 1-for-2. Spruell drew a walk for HHS.

“There's a lot to remember about this season,” Brunck said. “I don't know how I can forget any of it. It was a lot of fun. I’m very proud of us, and though things didn't go our way today, overall the season was great.”

Spruell was charged with the loss, pitching all six innings and allowing nine runs (six earned) on three hits, four walks, four wild pitches and one hit batter. She had seven strikeouts. 

Hillsboro caps off their season with a Frontier Athletic Conference championship (their fifth consecutive), a 50-0 winning streak in the FAC, a third-ever district championship, and their first regional championship as it was the first regional title won in school history. 

Seniors for the Lady Indians are: Addie Huff, Mylea Fridley, Camryn Spruell, Reagan Clemons, Rhianna Clemons, Isabelle Brunck, Madison Dearmon and Brylee Thornburgh.

"Having a senior class of the eight, Cam and Izzy are four-year varsity players, but the senior class has done unbelievably in the aspect of wanting to put Hillsboro softball back together," Breeden said. "We were state runners-up this year. It's not where we wanted to be, because we wanted to be holding the gold trophy, but these seniors have set the bar, and they set it by example.

"The last couple of weeks in practice, you watch them, and they're actually coaching. When some of the younger kids were in line with them, they were actually coaching them, whatever it might have been. That's kind of rubbed off on our juniors, you know, Chloe (Roberts) has started leading more. You hear Chloe coaching kids, and Cam has talked to Chloe about a lot of different things over the last couple years. The seniors are just passing the torch, and they're passing the very bright torch."
 

BOX SCORE
HHS 000 000 0 – 0 5 3
KRHS 107 010 X – 9 3 0

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