May 7th 2026 Thursday night brought another full slate of action for the Hamilton Marines as varsity baseball hosted the Stryker Panthers from Ohio while the Lady Marines softball team traveled to Churubusco to take on the Eagles JV squad. On the baseball diamond, Stryker struck first with a run in the top of the opening inning. The Panthers threatened again in the second inning, loading the bases with no outs, but Hamilton pitcher Lucas Taylor battled through adversity with a strikeout, a sacrifice fly, and another strikeout to limit the damage and keep the score at 2-0. The Marines answered in the bottom half of the second when David Beard ripped a line drive over the shortstop’s head, bringing home Cooper Leininger and cutting the deficit to 2-1. Stryker responded in the top of the third with three runs to extend the lead to 5-1 and later added three more runs in the fifth inning to make it 8-1. Hamilton showed fight in the bottom of the fifth as Matthew Buffenn singled to start the inning and Liam Ferrell followed with a base hit. After a wild pitch advanced the runners, Buffenn eventually came around to score making it 8-2 after five innings. The Marines added another run in the sixth when Miles DeWitt drove a shot into right-center field for a double, scoring Spencer Bredemeyer and cutting the score to 8-3. Stryker added two insurance runs in the seventh inning as the Panthers earned the 10-3 victory. Offensively for Hamilton, Liam Ferrell finished 1-4, Lucas Taylor went 1-3, Brendan Pfefferkorn was 1-4, Cooper Leininger finished 1-3 with a run scored, Spencer Bredemeyer walked and scored, David Beard went 1-3 with an RBI, Miles DeWitt went 1-3 with a double and RBI, and Matthew Buffenn finished 1-3 with a run scored. On the mound, Lucas Taylor recorded 5 strikeouts across 3 innings while Trenton Kintz added 6 strikeouts over 4 innings of work. The Marines now have the weekend off before returning home Monday night to host Elkhart Christian Academy for their final home game of the season. In softball action, the Lady Marines once again came out swinging early. Skye Allen singled home Tristen Creager to get Hamilton on the board before Karly Nester later scored on a catcher’s error to give the Marines a quick 2-0 lead. Churubusco answered with a run in the bottom of the second inning to make it 2-1 before the Eagles exploded offensively in the third inning, scoring 15 runs to take control of the contest. The game finished after five innings with Churubusco earning a 16-2 victory. At the plate for Hamilton, Tsumiya Sato went 1-3, Tristen Creager and Karly Nester each finished 1-2 with a run scored, and Skye Allen went 1-1 with an RBI and a walk. Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, Hamilton varsity track travels to Fort Wayne to compete in the Cavalier Invite at Canterbury School beginning at 5:00pm Friday evening. On Saturday, varsity boys golf heads to Bent Oak to compete in the Hoosier Plains Conference Meet beginning at 8:15am for 9 holes. Lady Marines softball travels to Fort Wayne for a pair of games at South Side against the Archers and Wayne Generals beginning at 10:00am and 12:00pm. Junior High Track wraps up its season Saturday at Bethany Christian Academy competing in the Hoosier Plains Conference Meet.