Photo Courtesy of Highland/Seth Milledge Social Media

The resiliency of the Highland baseball team was on full display Saturday as the Huskies climbed out of an early hole against Lynnville-Sully before dropping the Class 1A District 8 championship game 10-8 in Riverside. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, the Lynnville-Sully bats made noise early, scoring once in the first and four times in the second to take an early 5-0 advantage. From there, the Huskies didn’t go away, instead, they chipped away, with one in their half of the second and two more in the third to get back within 5-3. The Hawks countered with single runs in their next three at bats, holding an 8-3 lead. Down to their final six outs, the Huskies strung together a five run frame in the sixth to tie the contest at eight, before the Hawks pushed across a pair in the top of the seventh, and closed the door in the bottom half for the win. After the contest, head coach Seth Milledge talked about this year’s team and seniors. “To come back, after being down 5-0, to tie that game at eight, give ourselves a shot, that’s exactly what we did. That’s what we feel like we can do every game. It was a good job by us to keep answering, to keep battling back. Obviously, I can’t say enough about our guys and their ability and what they put out there in terms of effort. We had runners on, put ourselves in position to score, unfortunately, we didn’t get that done. I always tell our kids, I’ve got hundreds of sons. This group of seniors is no different. They are kids that have been a pleasure to work with for the last five years. They come to work and have become better baseball players and better young men. Really good group to work with and kids that I’ll cherish having that opportunity to work with that I’ll remember for a lifetime.”

Each team finished with nine hits. For Highland, Brenton Bonebrake was three for three with a pair of doubles, a triple and two driven in. Trevor McFarland had three RBI. Connor Grinstead had a pair of hits. Corder Noun Harder had three RBI for L-S. The Huskies Chase Schultz went four innings on the hill, giving up four hits, six runs, walking one and striking out three. Lynnville-Sully advances to Tuesday’s 1A Substate final against No. 6 North Linn. The Huskies see their season come to a close at 22-4, and will say good bye to a senior class of eight including Kaige Vonnahme, Brenton Bonebrake, Carson Netser, Trevor McFarland, Connor Grinstead, Luke Miller, Chase Schultz, and Spencer Grout.