A day after striking out 13 and tossing a one-hitter on his birthday, Hilling was equally impressive at the plate, collecting a pair of hits, driving in three runs and scoring from second on a wild pitch in an 8-3 win over Graham, Va. in the Coppinger Tournament Friday night at Bowen Field.
On a night where almost everything worked for the Panthers, the bats set the tone. The Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead, were pushed on occasion but never looked back in a game where they didn’t yield a single earned run.
“The first inning, we were aggressive early,” Pikeview head coach Josh Wyatt said. “We got a lot of fastballs early in the count and then in the second third inning there, he started mixing it up on us a little bit and we just fell behind in the count, not really taking what was given to us, so, we’ll work on that.”
Hilling, who had the best night of any player at the plate, set the tone in the electric bottom of the first. Following a single by Landon Wyatt and a walk drawn by Trenton Tolliver, Hilling launched a one-out double that brought both players home for the first runs of the night.
He got himself home from there, taking off from second on a wild pitch and just beating the tag at the plate for the Panthers’ third run of the inning. It was a glimpse of his efficient night that saw him secure an RBI single in the third and drive in another on a long sac-fly that nearly landed for extra bases.
“My approach at the plate was, I was just I was widening out, trying to hit a fastball,” Hilling said. I was trying to hit the fastball early in the count. If they threw me a curveball I was just gonna foul it off trying to get another fastball. I wanted to hit the ball hard today. Hitting clean up I was trying to get a bunch of RBIs, trying to get a bunch of runs for the team.”
The 3-0 lead was challenged early.
Following a PikeView error on a dropped ball that would’ve accounted for the second out, the G-Men were able to extend the inning and strike after making their second out.
Noah Davis capitalized, hitting a two-run single that cut the lead. It took an inning for the Panthers to respond when Hilling drove in Eli Naylor on an RBI single in the third to make it 4-2. The sophomore standout struck again with his sac fly in the fifth to extend the advantage to 5-2.
“He’s a kid that’s been hitting balls right at people,” Wyatt said. “He plays baseball, he lives and breathes it. He was able to widen out a little bit today and looking to drive the ball up the middle and was early on some. He just got on time and he’s just one of those one of those sophomores that plays like plays like an upperclassman.”
Graham took advantage of a leadoff error in the sixth, scoring when Mullins drew a two-out bases-loaded walk but Naylor, pitching in relief for Landon Bolen, punched out Davis to escape further damage.
The Panthers put the game away from there with the bottom of the order getting a pair on base for the top which took advantage. A two-out double from Landon Wyatt scored Austin Bennett with Deuce Rompon driving in the former with an opposite-field double.
Naylor capped the scoring with a single that plated Rompon.
“Bennett and (Drew) Damewood, those are two kids that were hitting at the top lineup as freshman and sophomores,” Wyatt said. “But when you look at that lineup and you turn it over, those two become leadoff hitters and Landon comes in as a three-hole hitter. We have a great lineup one through nine that can attack. I was very proud of them the last couple of nights. They’ve gone up strong for us.”
Naylor, Hilling and Wyatt led the Panthers with two hits each while Bolen picked up the win on the mound.
