Trojan Baseball having up and down season, but win when it counts

With a large contingent of experienced seniors returning to this year’s Park Hill baseball team, expectations are high. After a strong start supported by both offense and pitching, the Trojans are now trying to find what many teams are searching for at the mid-way point in the season, consistency. While 4-0 in conference, a 6-4 record has come with its ups and downs as the Trojans look to find its groove.

“I don’t think we’ve improved where we need to yet, we’ve been inconsistent on both sides,” Coach Greg Reynolds said.

Last week was reflective of how the season has gone up to this point as they lost an extra inning game 6-4 to Excelsior Springs in what Reynolds says was one of their worst performances of the season. They bounced back the very next day against Staley as a 12-strikeout performance from Clay Smith led the Trojans to a 7-4 victory, described as one of their best performances. The following day, pitcher Daniel Jessen held a talented Kearney team to just three runs through six innings before the flood gates opened in the seventh resulting in a 10-0 loss.

“Some of the up and down can be attributed to the pace of the high school game because it revolves so much around the pitching rhythm and the speed at which they work,” Reynolds said.

While it has been hard to tell which Trojan team will take the field each day, they’ve won the important games they’ve needed so far in conference play and are leading the chase for the title as they enter the second half of their conference schedule. With seven games this week, the Trojans will have the plenty of chances to work out some of the kinks as they’ll finish the week at the Kearney Tournament with four games in three days.

“Our highest expectations come from ourselves,” Reynolds said. “Just because you have a lot of seniors coming back people think it makes it easier and it just happens on its own, where in reality other teams know that so they’ll usually put their best pitcher up against you.”

The next two weeks of conference games will likely decide the champion, but with Truman and Park Hill South just behind Park Hill in the standings, Reynolds says it might come down to the last game when Park Hill plays Park Hill South on May 15. By then, the Trojans hope to be back to full strength after resolving some of their injuries and exhibiting the consistency they aim for.