With the baseball season now in full swing, Highland opened Conference play on Thursday with a home doubleheader against Coffeyville and earned the split falling 12-4 in game one and responding with a 6-4 game two win.

Late runs in the first game proved to be the big difference for Coffeyville against the Scotties but in game two the lead change hands multiple times until the Scotties took the lead in the sixth and kept it for the win. The win over Coffeyville snapped a six-game losing streak on the season and an eight-game losing streak against the Red Ravens.

With the 1-1 performance the Scotties are now 7-8 on the season and start Conference play 1-1 as they will continue the series with Coffeyville on the road on Saturday.

Game 1 – Coffeyville won 12-4
Scotties opened the scoring for the day as Highland snagged a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning of game one when Isaac Nunez lead the inning off with a single and came into score on groundout by Nick Schifftner later in the inning. Coffeyville countered with a run in the second and two in the third on a two-run homer giving them the 3-1 advantage. Scotties worked the bases loaded in the fourth and with a walk draw by Jacob Selock tallied a run to draw within one run, however Coffeyville countered with three runs in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth the Scotties tightened the score once again as Alejandro Pina blasted a solo home run and then Jorge Luis Burgos came around to score also in the inning making it 6-4. Coffeyville did the rest of the scoring doubling their run output with three runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh which handed the Scotties a tough 12-4 loss.

In the loss Jason Dudzik went 2-3 with a walk and stolen base, while Burgos was 1-3 with two runs scored, a stolen base and reached on an error. On the mound Jared Wells went three innings as the starter taking the loss but gave up just three runs (two earned) on two hits, four walks and hit batter while striking out four.

Game 2 – Highland won 6-4
Game two proved to be a tight back and forth affair with multiple lead changes until the Scotties retook the lead in the sixth and finished the game strong.

Coffeyville opened the scoring with a run in the top of the second but Highland answered as Jhors Gomez led off the bottom of the second with a double and came around to score on a RBI groundout by Alejandro Torres to make it 1-1. Red Ravens posted another run in the third but this time the Scotties countered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on a solo home run from Isaac Nunez and an RBI single by Gomez making it 3-2 Highland. The lead swung back to Coffeyville in the fourth as the Red Ravens scored two runs, but the Scotties would send seven to the plate in the sixth and score three runs to take a 6-4 advantage. Back-to-back RBI base hits by Alejandro Pina and Jason Dudzik highlighted the sixth for the Scotties. The pitching did the rest for the Scotties as Highland kept Coffeyville off the board from the fifth inning on allowing only four base runners for the Red Ravens during that time frame. In the ninth Bryan Rollin entered the game and picked up his third save of the season shutting the door on a 6-4 Highland win, marking the first win over Coffeyville for Highland since April 12^th, 2018.

Gomez paced the Scottie offense going 2-3 with two runs scored, a double, RBI and hit by pitch, while six other Scotties had a hit. On the hill Joan Gonzalez picked up his second win of the season tossing six innings as the starter giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits, a hit batter and four walks while striking out three. In relief Max Milligan had two scoreless innings giving up just one hit and Rollin tossed the ninth for the save.

Highland continues the series with Coffeyville on Saturday, March 7^th with a doubleheader on the road starting at 1:00pm.