Trinity Christian overcomes hot start by HMS
Trinity Christian spotted Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn an early three-run lead then stormed back to claim an 11-3 win June 28 at Hull. The loss dropped the Hawks to 5-5 in the final War Eagle Conference standings, tied for fourth place.
HMS enters its Wednesday, June 5 Class 2A Region 1 quarterfinal match-up with Western Christian sporting a 12-13 record. Game time is 7:00 p.m. at Hartley. The semifinal is scheduled to be played Friday, July 7 at North Union (Swea City) and the Regional final is slated for Monday, July 10 at 7:00 p.m. at a site to be determined.
In the regular season finale, the Tigers blanked HMS over the final six innings. “Our bats were hot at the start of the game and everything started to fizzle and we couldn’t get it back,” commented Hawk head coach Stephanie Bronstad. “Gracie (Knobloch) stayed strong on the mound while Trinity hit the ball hard but defensively we rattled. Focusing on individual batting and some defense to get ready to next week.”
In her six innings in the pitcher’s circle Knobloch allowed eight hits and four earned runs. The Hawks committed four errors while Trinity played error-free ball. Knobloch struck out 12 Tiger batters, walked two and hit one.
Half of the Hawks’ four hits came in the first inning. Frankie Mohni notched a one-out single and Kamrym Ebel was hit by a pitch. A walk to Knobloch loaded the bases. Abby Kunzman also drew a walk to force in Mohni. Delaney Murphy then stroked a base hit to plate both Ebel and Knobloch. The only production from the bats the rest of the way were singles by Ebel in the fifth and Kinsey Schirmer in the seventh. Each team left five runners on base.
HMS 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 3
Trinity 0 3 6 0 0 2 x – 11