50-0: Hillsboro Lady Indians are undefeated FAC champions for 5th consecutive season

HILLSBORO — Whether teams are traveling on state Routes 138 and 32, or US Routes 50 and 62, all roads will eventually lead to one location … the home of the five-time consecutive Frontier Athletic Conference champions, which is where the Hillsboro Lady Indians reside.

For their past 50 FAC games, the Lady Indians have a record of 50-0, including the game on Wednesday that sealed the fifth straight undefeated FAC championship. Hillsboro defeated their Highland County rival, the McClain Lady Tigers, 10-0 in six innings at HHS to finish to 10-0 in the FAC this season, as they also moved to 16-3 overall.

Head coach Gary Breeden has been the leader of the HHS softball program for the past four seasons and was an assistant coach for HHS when the championship streak began as Katie Moberly was at the helm. Breeden has seen all 50 of the Lady Indians’ conference wins, as he spoke about not only the current team, but paid respect to past members of the teams that won championships.

“This is just as special as it was the first time,” Hillsboro head coach Gary Breeden said  following the game. “Anytime you can go undefeated in the conference, it’s just special. Most of these seniors have been a part of this four times now, some of them only three times, but they’ve been here through it all, and it’s just very special.

“The five straight championships and 50 straight wins goes back to not just our seniors and the classes this year, but it goes all the way back to the seniors and those players from five years ago.”

Winning the FAC this season, the Lady Indians outscored their opponents in their 10 conference games, 134-21 with seven of those games being shutouts. The only two teams to score runs against HHS in FAC games this season were Miami Trace — a 9-7 HHS win — and Jackson, as HHS won those two games by scores of 10-8 and 15-6.

In the shutout wins, the Lady Indians defeated Washington 18-0 and 14-0, Chillicothe 19-0 and 16-0, Miami Trace 7-0, and McClain by the aforementioned 10-0 score and 16-0.

“We have built a program because of the fact that we have some great quality kids that have bought in,” Breeden said. “They knew what we wanted from day one and they took it, taken it on their own and ran with it.”

Hillsboro on Wednesday (April 30) defended their home field against rival McClain by fending off tough charges by their rival, as the score says it was a run-rule win after six innings, but it wasn’t a walk in the park, so to speak.

“McClain came in, and they played hard,” Breeden said of facing their rivals for a second consecutive game. “They did a very good job of keeping us off-balanced, and we really didn’t drive the ball the way we wanted to until late in ball game. This was a tough ball game, as every ball game should be.”

Hillsboro’s 16th win of the season (16-3 overall) saw them score two runs in the bottom of the first and one run in the second for a 3-0 lead after two innings.

The HHS at-bats began with senior Brylee Thornburgh leading off with a six-pitch at-bat, where after going down with an 0-2 count, she drew a walk on the next four pitches. She advanced to second base following a walk by Mylea Fridley (one run, two walks), and after leaving the game to cheers from the crowd in attendance, Meredith Dietrick came in to run from second base.

From there, Dietrick went to third on an infield error, and Fridley stole second base. After one out, Chloe Roberts was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Roberts also collected one run and a walk in the win.

The first run of the game was scored with a sacrifice fly hit by Isabelle Brunck to right field, scoring Dietrick for the 1-0 lead. Brunck finished the game 2-for-2 with one run, two RBI and a walk.

Hillsboro moved the score to a two-run lead with Addie Huff reaching the bases on an error with Fridley scoring a run. For the game, Huff finished 2-for-4 with a run and one RBI.

The Lady Indians scored another two-out run in the bottom of the second when Reagan Clemons  — who drew a lead-off walk on four consecutive pitches — stole home for the 3-0 advantage.

Hillsboro added three runs in the bottom of the third for a 6-0 lead, starting with a lead-off four-pitch walk by Camryn Spruell (1-for-3, two runs, one walk), followed by a five-pitch walk by Roberts. Spruell scored when Brunck singled to centerfield.

The lead went from four runs to five runs when Roberts stole home for the Lady Indians, and Brunck took second base. Hillsboro’s lead then increased to 6-0 when Brunck scored on an infield error.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Indians jumped to a seven-run lead as Huff hit a two-out double to score Spruell, who first reached the baes with a one-out single hit to centerfield.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Lady Indians ended the game, as Madison Dearmon hit a two-run home run over the left field fence, scoring Huff, who was at third base for a 9-0 advantage. Dearmon went 2-for-4 with one run and two RBI for the game.

The game ended when Dietrick (1-for-4, one run, one RBI) singled to score Clemons for the 10-0 victory.

Reagan Clemons, Rhianna Clemons and Roberts all were hit by a pitch, and steals by the Lady Indians were credited to Fridley, Huff, Rhianna Clemons, Reagan Clemons (two), Brunck and Roberts.

Spruell earned the win in the circle, throwing 72 pitches, 49 for strikes. She allowed no runs on one hit and three walks with 12 strikeouts.

McClain finished the game with one hit and committed five errors. HHS committed two errors and for the game had eight hits.

The Lady Tigers’ hit was off the bat of Brie Cummins. Drawing walks for McClain were Kenzie Wise with two and Leah Lovett. The pitching loss went to Kyndee Williams.

Before the game, HHS celebrated their eight seniors for senior night, and those players are Addie Huff, Mylea Fridley, Camryn Spruell, Reagan Clemons, Rhianna Clemons, Isabelle Brunck, Madison Dearmon and Brylee Thornburgh.  

The win puts Hillsboro at 16-3 overall and 10-0 in the FAC, as Coach Breeden spoke about how there is still more work to do.

“Our three losses in non-conference play are by a combined four runs against very high-quality opponents,” he said. “We have a week to go before tournament, and we still have stuff to work on. If we go into the tournament satisfied, we’re not coming out of the tournament where we want to be.

“We have a couple younger kids who have contributed over the season that are hurt right now, so we’ve got to get them healthy. We did clean up a few things defensively, but if we go in satisfied, again, we are not going to finish where we want to finish.”

BOX SCORE
MHS    000 000 x — 0 1 5
HHS    213 103 x — 10 8 2  

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On Monday (April 28) in Greenfield, the Hillsboro Lady Indians defeated the McClain Lady Tigers in FAC play by a 16-0 score in five innings. 

The ninth win of the FAC season for Hillsboro saw them score 10 runs in the top of the first inning, followed by one run in the second. Next were two consecutive two-run innings, and they capped off the victory with one run in the top of the fifth inning.

In all, HHS totaled 17 hits and had no errors. McClain finished with one hit and three errors. 

Meredith Dietrick led Hillsboro with a 4-for-4 game at the plate, totaling four runs, and she had one steal. 

Chloe Roberts went 3-for-4 with two runs, and two RBI. Addley Miller also had three hits, finishing 3-for-4 with one run and two RBI. 

Camryn Spruell was 2-for-3 with int tune four RBI and a walk, as one of her hits was a home run. Isabelle Brunck also had two hits, going 2-for-3 with two runs and a walk. 

Mylea Fridley finished 1-for-2 with two runs, one RBI and a walk. Addie Huff was 1-for-3 with a double, one run, one RBI and a walk. Madison Dearmon finished the game 1-for-2 with one run and four RBI, as she also hit a home run in the win. 

Rilynn Swisshelm finished with one run, and Reagan Clemons also scored a run. 

Spruell was also the winning pitcher, tossing a one-hitter, allowing no runs and one walk, with 15 strikeouts in five innings. She threw a total of 72 pitches, 53 for strikes. 

For McClain, their hit was off the bat of Olivia Stegbauer, who was 1-for-2. Lindsey Hutchinson drew a walk for McClain. 

BOX SCORE
HHS    (10)12 21x x — 16 17 0 
MHS    000 00x x — 0 1 3 

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