The Lyon County baseball team ended regular-season play on a losing note on Tuesday, falling 8-3 at McLean County. The Lyons will now need to repeat as 2nd-Region champions and win at least one game at the KHSAA state tournament to avoid the program’s first losing season since 2018.
McLean County jumped out to a 5-1 advantage before Hudson Phillips and Colton Prow delivered RBI singles to trim the margin to two runs in the top of the 5th, but the Cougars answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame for a 7-3 lead.
The Lyons left runners on second and third in the 6th, before McLean County rounded out the scoring on Jaelin Groves’ RBI double in the Cougars’ final at-bat.
Phillips took the loss on the mound for the Lyons, allowing four earned runs on a pair of hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
Layden Bozarth earned the win to help the Cougars snap a two-game skid and improve to 22-11. Bozarth gave up a single unearned run on a hit with two strikeouts over three innings.
The top-seeded Lyons slipped to 10-16 and will face Livingston Central in the opening round of the 5th-District tournament. Lyon County won both regular-season meetings with the Cardinals by a combined score of 28-0.
