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.

Spring Roundup: April 19 - 23

Park Hill Boys Golf
Before placing third at the Conference tournament, Park Hill boys golfers appeared to be peaking at the right time last week as they shot their best team score of the season with an overall 328 at the Liberty Invitational. Unfortunately for the Trojans, other area teams are also improving as the Trojans’ top performance only placed them in tenth out of 20 teams. Austin Dorward led Park Hill along with Victor Sodenholm who both shot 78.

Park Hill Girls Soccer
After rattling off three straight victories improving their record to 6-5, the Trojans hoped a showdown with the 9-1 Liberty Blue Jays would show some of the strides they had taken in this year and that they were ready to take the next step. It wasn’t so, as the impressive offense displayed over recent games for the Trojans was shut-out as they were defeated 10-0. Three games this week include a home game against Truman along with games at Winnetonka and Platte County. Park Hill is 6-6 on the year.

Park Hill Boys Tennis
The Park Hill Boys Tennis team turned out an impressive performance last week in their only match as they defeated Oak Park 9-0. Top singles player Sam Barth defeated his counterpart in consecutive sets 6-2 and 6-0. Mike Merchant and Brian Hillix have surfaced as the Trojans’ top doubles combination. They also won in consecutive sets by scores of 6-1 and 6-0. This week they’ll travel to Columbia to compete against Rockbridge.

Park Hill Boys Track
Last Friday the Park Hill Boys Track team competed in the Gary Parker Invitational at Blue Springs High. Liberty, Lee’s Summit West, and host school Blue Springs were just the start of a field featuring some of the city’s top athletes. Finishing eighth overall out of ten teams with just 48 team points compared to Blue Springs’ 111, the Trojans performed well in several areas. They leaned on what have been their strengths up to this point in the season including the distance relays, shot put, and discus. Adrien Esaw placed second in the 300 meter hurdles with time of 40 seconds, James Leach placed second in the 800 meter run at 2:00, Nick Smith placed 2nd in the shot put and 4th in the discus. The 4x800 meter relay placed third with a time of 8:18. They’ll prepare for the Park Hill Invitational featuring a number of area teams this Thursday afternoon at Park Hill District Stadium.