Park Hill took an early lead but Staley answered quickly and held off a late Trojans rally on Friday, April 22 at Staley High School in Kansas City, Mo.
In what ended up their Northland Invitational finale, the Trojans gave up four runs in the bottom of the fourth and ended up with a 5-2 loss. They went 1-3 in the tournament with four games in four days, closing with three straight losses.
Park Hill took the lead against Staley in the top of the third.
Trevor Guzzo worked a two-out walk before Liam Henry laced a two-out RBI double to the right-center field gap. A passed ball moved Henry to third, but he ended up stranded there.
After three scoreless innings and with a 1-0 lead, Park Hill starter Chris Bolte allowed the first three Falcons to reach in the bottom of the fourth with singles before Hunter Swift cleared the bases with a double. He scored on Roderick Criss’ single.
Staley plated an insurance run in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead.
Park Hill’s last push came in the seventh when Griffin Fletcher led off with a single. He advanced to second on a groundout and scored five pitches later after a pair of wild pitches advanced to third base and then home with the run cutting the Trojans’ deficit to 5-2.
Now 10-9 on the season, Park Hill’s only win of the Northland Invitational came in a pool play opener against North Kansas City — a 6-5 victory. The Trojans scored just three runs total in the next three games before ending their losing skid with a 15-1 romp over Ruskin on Monday, April 25.
Park Hill sits at 3-2 in Suburban Conference Red Division play. They are scheduled to play at St. Joseph Central (Wednesday, April 27) and at Truman (Friday, April 29) this week as the regular season winds down.
Fort Osage 4, Park Hill 1
The Trojans scored their lone run in the top of the seventh Wednesday, April 20 in Independence, Mo.
Neither team recorded an extra-base hit, but Henry scored Lucas Youtsey with a two-out single in the seventh. Park Hill collected seven hits total, including a 3-for-4 day for Preston Cross.
Griffin Fletcher lasted five innings for Park Hill and gave up only one earned run. However, Fort Osage used four hits, two walks and two errors to plate three in the bottom of the fourth and another in the bottom of the fifth to go up 4-0.
Smithville 4, Park Hill 0
The Trojans again didn’t have an extra-base hit in a shutout loss Thursday, April 21 at Park Hill High School in Kansas City, Mo.
Smithville pitchers Logan Brown and Peyton Bellmer combined to allow five singles and two walks in a combined shutout with Park Hill’s Guzzo going 2-for-2 with a walk. The Trojans stranded 10 runners.
Smithville took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third and added two more in the seventh. Henry started for Park Hill and allowed five walks and five hits in 5 1/3 innings of work.