I was looking up county baseball statistical leaders Sunday morning when I came across a stat that had to be a typographical error. Nobody could have 20 stolen bases this early in the season. Good thing I made a phone call.
Hillsboro head coach Matt Thompson answered and before I could finish asking if this was true, he verified that it was – adding that he wasn’t overly surprised.
The Hawks (5-3) are eight games into the season and sophomore Max Partney has 20 stolen bases. That ties him for first in the St. Louis area with Lutheran North junior Osar Tate, who’s swiped that many in only six games, including five steals in a 16-7 win over Elsberry.
Both Partney, a 6-1, 195-pound third baseman, and Tate, a 5-8, 138-pound shortstop, are tagged as NCAA Division I talent and play high-level select ball after the high school season ends.
It’s a wonder the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department wasn’t called to the scene in Imperial on April 1 to investigate grand larceny at Seckman High. Partney raked Jaguar pitching for three hits in three at-bats and scored three runs. In the process he pilfered six bags. Seckman’s 6-1 lead evaporated as Hillsboro came back for a 10-6 victory.
Partney, who has yet to be caught stealing this spring, swiped 15 bases as a freshman in the Hawks’ run-happy offense, the team’s trademark since Thompson arrived three years ago. Hillsboro stole 223 bases in his first two seasons, with a record of 39-15.
Of course, as they say, you can’t steal first base, and Partney has a sparkling .621 on-base percentage, also among the area leaders.
“It comes off seeing the ball well at the plate,” Partney said. “It comes down to (getting) good swings so I can get on base. Stealing bases is all about finding the pitcher’s sequence and Coach Thompson helps me a lot. If the pitcher has a high leg lift, that’s easy to steal off of. Counting the number of looks a pitcher gives. (Opponents) try pickoffs a lot after teams find out (we) like to steal. That’s a big thing Coach Thompson has brought to the team, and we like that.”
Partney bats leadoff to maximize his plate appearances.
“He’s been hit a few times, walked, intentionally walked; he’s on base all the time,” Thompson said. “He’s got the green light to go. He’s a top-level prospect.”
I asked Thompson if Partney’s reputation as a base burglar was growing.
“It’s going to after they read it in the Leader,” he said.
Jeff Nichols holds the school record for career stolen bases with 64. Last year Cohen Linderer, a 2024 graduate, swiped 31 bases in his final season and finished just shy of Nichols’ career record with 63. In the Class 5 District 1 championship against Festus, Linderer attempted to tie Nichols but was thrown out at third base in a 3-0 shutout loss.
“Max is extremely intelligent and explosive,” Thompson said. “He’s going to shatter the (career) record.”
Ironically, Partney’s twin brother, Zach, is tasked with throwing out base runners from his catcher’s position. Zach also was a varsity starter as a freshman and is being watched closely by scouts. Max and Zach play club ball for St. Louis Legacy in Chesterfield. Their lives revolve around the diamond and the classroom. They share a car, so they’re together most of the time.
“Their lives are dedicated to baseball,” Thompson said. “Zach is extremely intelligent.”
Like any good catcher, Zach is a poker player, noticing the tendencies or “tells” of opposing pitchers and quickly sharing them with his teammates.
“It goes a lot with playing the position,” Zach said. “Against Seckman, their pitcher was telling early and I told Max (the pitcher) was leaning toward the plate when he was going home.
“(Max has) helped us win games stealing 90 feet at a time. It’s almost guaranteed when he runs.”
I asked Max who was the hardest local pitcher to steal against. He said lefthanders are tricky because it’s hard to tell whether they’ll try a pickoff move or deliver the ball to the plate. He said Festus senior lefty Mason Schirmer was hard to steal against. Max stole one base on Schirmer last spring but the Tigers shut out Hillsboro in all three meetings.
Technically, Max hasn’t stolen home this year, but more than once he’s scored from third when the ball got away from the catcher.
“Stealing third is more of a technique,” he said. “You have to be fast to steal second.”
There’s more to Hillsboro than the Partneys. Senior pitcher Gunner Sutton – what a great name for a hurler – has an earned run average of 0.00 through 10 innings. John Belushi’s “Bluto” character from the movie “Animal House” would be proud since his grade-point average was the same number.
The two runs Sutton allowed in a 12-5 victory over Ste. Genevieve on March 22 were unearned and he threw a complete-game shutout against Pensacola Catholic when the Hawks traveled to Florida last month.
“He hits his spots really well,” Zach said. “He can throw pretty hard and can locate well.”
Staying in Hillsboro but switching to track and field, eighth-grader Brandon Smith broke a 39-year-old Hillsboro Junior High record when he cleared 3.30 meters (10-10) in the pole vault on his home track March 18. The winning height at the Class 4 high school state championships last May was 4.73 (15-6). If he can master the event’s technical challenges, Smith could be well on his way to clearing that height. Good luck.