By NICHOLAS KIMBALL

Staff writer

All three county baseball and softball teams had difficulties Friday, but they rebounded Tuesday night with Marion baseball, Hillsboro baseball, and Hillsboro softball all enjoying big victories.

Marion

The Warriors won late Tuesday night against Moundridge, 6-2, but dropped two Friday to Little River, 19-2 and 18-4.

“Defense let us down multiple times Friday, as it has on and off so far this year,” coach Roger Schroeder said. “If we can’t make the routine plays to get off the field, it makes it really hard on our pitching staff when they are asked to repeatedly get more than three outs.”

Lander Smith scored three of Marion’s six total runs. Lane Smith scored two and Eldon Smith scored one.

“Big week for us coming up, with four games in three days,” Schroeder said.

The Warriors will be hosts for their penultimate home game of the season Thursday against Canton-Galva.

“We have to find ways to be more competitive later in the weeks when we play four games,” Schroeder said.

Hillsboro

The Trojans’ boys and girls teams each enjoyed lopsided victories Tuesday night against Herington, 16-1 and 10-0 respectively.

On Friday, the Trojans were hosts to Smoky Valley. Both the boys and girls split their doubleheaders.

The boys lost their first game 7-5 then won the second 11-10 in extra innings.

The girls lost their first game 17-6 then won the second 14-12.

“Our guys showed a lot of heart in battling back several times to give us the chance to win,” boys coach Daniel Moss said.

Dalton Philpott and Jaeten Loewen each scored three runs in the second game.

Zayne Haslett scored two, and Jace Morales, Talon Reiger, and Ashton Talkington scored one each.

On the girls side, coach Alyssa Kroeker said the team “played one of our worst games” on Friday night.

“We committed eight errors and couldn’t get momentum on offense,” she said. “The second game of the night we came out and played a whole new game.”

In the second game, every player but one scored a run for the Trojans Starting pitcher Cheyanne Plenert got the victory.

“We came out strong and took care of what Smoky Valley gave us,” Kroeker said. “It was a good win for us because it showed how we handle adversity.”

The Trojans will be at home again Thursday to take on Halstead.