The Trenton Bulldogs played a pair of opponents from the Midland Empire Conference on Friday afternoon, losing both games to the St. Joseph Lafayette Fighting Irish and the Cameron Dragons to drop out of the Chillicothe Tournament with a mark of 0-2.
Trenton struggled out of the gates in their quarterfinal against Lafayette, with the Irish dousing any upset hopes of the Bulldogs with 12 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning, cruising to a 22-4, four inning victory at Shaffer Park.
Hunter Dugan and Cole Schilling took the brunt of the punishment from the Lafayette bats early, with Dugan going just 1/3 inning, and Schilling managing to push the game to the 2nd inning with 2/3 innings of work. The Irish went on to add eight runs in the 2nd inning, pushing the lead to 20-2. Hunter Beverlin pitched the final 2 2/3 innings for the Bulldogs, allowing three hits and four runs, with four strikeouts.
Trenton, offensively, scored twice in the 2nd and twice in the 4th, managing six hits against the Lafayette duo of Hazelrigg and Gregory. Avery Cooksey was 2 for 3 with two runs scored, and Hunter Dugan 1 for 2 with a pair of RBI’s for the Bulldogs.
The loss dropped Trenton into the loser’s bracket, and sent the Bulldogs cross-town to Danner Park for a consolation semifinal against the Cameron Dragons. Although not as severely as in the Lafayette game, Trenton’s pitching staff struggled to keep the Dragons off the board early, as CHS scored in all five innings played, with a 13-6 win over Trenton.
Cameron scored twice in the first off Trenton starter Chase Otto, adding four runs in the second and three more in the third off reliever Sam Schilling, before the Bulldogs made it closer late, with a run in the fourth, and five in the top of the 5th inning. Cameron led 9-0 before the Bulldogs got on the board against relief pitcher Roach.
Trenton managed six hits, and cleaned up its defensive game, committing only one error.
Chillicothe, in an extra-inning thriller on Saturday afternoon, won the “Hornet Classic” championship with a win over MEC rival Benton. On Friday, Chillicothe beat Macon (quarterfinal) and Higginsville (semifinal) to advance to the title game, while Benton took a 7-6 win over archrival Lafayette in Friday night’s second semifinal.
