By Nick Brockman, Messenger Sports Reporter nbrockman@the-messenger.com
For the second time in as many nights, the Madisonville-North Hopkins baseball team proved offensive production should not be in short supply this season.
Every Maroon starter reached base at least once as North defeated Dawson Springs 23-1 at Elmer Kelley Stadium in five innings on Tuesday evening, one night after beating Webster County 11-1 via the mercy rule.
"Going into preseason, I felt we had a pretty good hitting team," North coach Scott Vance said. "I hope that don't come back and blow up in my face, but I do think we hit the ball well."
The Maroons (2-0) scored in each of their four at-bats, notching eight runs in the third inning and nine in the fourth. Ben Campbell and Justin Lamb paced the hitting attack, with Campbell posting a 3-for-4 performance with seven RBIs, including a no-doubt home run to left field in the fourth.
"I was 0-2 (in the count), I was really just trying to put the ball in play honestly, but I got one up and got it out of here," Campbell said of his blast. "Once I hit it, I felt pretty good. The wind was blowing out too, so just put those two together and it's going to get out of here."
As for Lamb, the first baseman recorded doubles in each of his four plate appearances and scored each time.
North batted around in both the third and fourth innings. Campbell, the team's No. 1 pitcher, didn't throw Tuesday, but said he understands the importance of having the team off to such a great offensive start.
Every Maroon starter reached base at least once as North defeated Dawson Springs 23-1 at Elmer Kelley Stadium in five innings on Tuesday evening, one night after beating Webster County 11-1 via the mercy rule.
"Going into preseason, I felt we had a pretty good hitting team," North coach Scott Vance said. "I hope that don't come back and blow up in my face, but I do think we hit the ball well."
The Maroons (2-0) scored in each of their four at-bats, notching eight runs in the third inning and nine in the fourth. Ben Campbell and Justin Lamb paced the hitting attack, with Campbell posting a 3-for-4 performance with seven RBIs, including a no-doubt home run to left field in the fourth.
"I was 0-2 (in the count), I was really just trying to put the ball in play honestly, but I got one up and got it out of here," Campbell said of his blast. "Once I hit it, I felt pretty good. The wind was blowing out too, so just put those two together and it's going to get out of here."
As for Lamb, the first baseman recorded doubles in each of his four plate appearances and scored each time.
North batted around in both the third and fourth innings. Campbell, the team's No. 1 pitcher, didn't throw Tuesday, but said he understands the importance of having the team off to such a great offensive start.
"It takes the pressure off the pitchers, takes the pressure off the defense," he said. "You can trust any of those guys to come up big at any moment."
In the second inning, Dawson trailed 3-0 when the Panthers came to bat. Austin Clayton and Brett Cobb began the inning with two straight doubles to left field, with Cobb's double scoring Clayton as Dawson appeared poised to strike for more runs, but then the team lost its beat on North starter Zach Baird.
"We got back-to-back doubles and I thought at one point we were going to get back into the game because it was 3-1 at that point," Dawson coach Adam Locke said. "The next couple guys almost seemed to get nervous again. It's like they realized they were in the game and their plate approach went off again."
Baird recovered after the doubles to strike out the next five batters. Baird left the game after three innings and allowed just three hits while striking out six.
Maroon pitcher Micah Rainwater entered in relief and surrendered just one hit and struck out four Panthers.
After the contest, each coach gave their respective teams a postgame speech, but the message differed drastically.
"We just sat down and had a man-to-man talk," Locke said. "We talked to the guys about how do you want to take this loss. Do you want to take it and just accept it as a loss or does it make you mad and you want to get better?
"I had a senior step up, Alan Higbee stepped up and he had a heart-to-heart talk with the guys and that's the type of leadership I've been looking for all year."
Down the right field line, Vance began to prep his guys for Thursday's matchup with Hopkinsville after two wins to begin the year.
"If we would have probably lost one of these two, I think we would have been down going into Thursday, but hopefully our guys know what it takes to play in big games and what we're going to have to do to go out there and compete," he said.
The Maroons will host the Tigers at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Elmer Kelley while Dawson will look for their first win at 5 p.m. Thursday at Caldwell County.
Dawson (0-2) 010 00 -- 1
North (2-0) 338 9X -- 23
WP: Zach Baird (1-0)
LP: Seth Bean (0-1)
In the second inning, Dawson trailed 3-0 when the Panthers came to bat. Austin Clayton and Brett Cobb began the inning with two straight doubles to left field, with Cobb's double scoring Clayton as Dawson appeared poised to strike for more runs, but then the team lost its beat on North starter Zach Baird.
"We got back-to-back doubles and I thought at one point we were going to get back into the game because it was 3-1 at that point," Dawson coach Adam Locke said. "The next couple guys almost seemed to get nervous again. It's like they realized they were in the game and their plate approach went off again."
Baird recovered after the doubles to strike out the next five batters. Baird left the game after three innings and allowed just three hits while striking out six.
Maroon pitcher Micah Rainwater entered in relief and surrendered just one hit and struck out four Panthers.
After the contest, each coach gave their respective teams a postgame speech, but the message differed drastically.
"We just sat down and had a man-to-man talk," Locke said. "We talked to the guys about how do you want to take this loss. Do you want to take it and just accept it as a loss or does it make you mad and you want to get better?
"I had a senior step up, Alan Higbee stepped up and he had a heart-to-heart talk with the guys and that's the type of leadership I've been looking for all year."
Down the right field line, Vance began to prep his guys for Thursday's matchup with Hopkinsville after two wins to begin the year.
"If we would have probably lost one of these two, I think we would have been down going into Thursday, but hopefully our guys know what it takes to play in big games and what we're going to have to do to go out there and compete," he said.
The Maroons will host the Tigers at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Elmer Kelley while Dawson will look for their first win at 5 p.m. Thursday at Caldwell County.
Dawson (0-2) 010 00 -- 1
North (2-0) 338 9X -- 23
WP: Zach Baird (1-0)
LP: Seth Bean (0-1)
No comments:
Post a Comment