HOPE — Hauser baseball continued its perfect Mid-Hoosier Conference record by beating South Decatur Thursday in the first of a two-game of a home-and-home series.
The Class A top-ranked Jets had a solid hitting day, going through the lineup nearly five times in five innings during the 17-2, five-inning victory.
With senior pitcher Sam Meek still sidelined because of an injury to his fibula, Trey Johnson pitched the entire game for Hauser, throwing a three-hitter with six strikeouts. Johnson also went 3 for 4 with four RBIs on offense.
“I’m glad to just see the ball finally coming off the bat hard,” Johnson said. “I was in a slump, but I’m glad I could have a game to where I could finally get my swing back … I felt confident (pitching). All my teammates had a lot of confidence in me, and I had confidence in them.”
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Brogan Howard’s RBI in the top of the first gave the Cougars (4-13, 4-6) an early one-run lead. Johnson got the Jets (14-7, 9-0) going with the first RBI in the first inning before they racked up five more to take a 6-1 advantage.
Hauser kept the momentum going by scoring nine more runs in the second inning. Six of the nine Jets batters had two-at bats during the bottom of the second, when they sent 15 to the plate.
South Decatur scored another run in the top of the third when an errant throw to third base allowed Devon Martin to race for home. Hauser responded with two more runs in the bottom of the third on a Jon Hatton RBI and a run scored by Sean Miller when the ball was thrown to second base.
Hatton went 4 for 4, and Aaron Mee went 3 for 4 to lead Hauser’s 18-hit attack. Kameron Lawson went 2 for 2 with two doubles and two RBIs, and Kobe Meahl, went 2 for 3 with two doubles and two RBIs.
“I thought we hit the baseball hard,” Hauser coach Nate Long said. “We saw a lot of good pitches, and when we got our good pitches ,we hit them hard.”
Martin went 2 for 3 for the Cougars. Their other hit came from the single by Howard.
The two teams face each other again today at South Decatur. Cougars coach Eric Foga said his players started the first game a little intimidated, but are hoping for a different outcome at home.
“Once we finally settled down, we started to hang in there,” Foga said. “It’s baseball. You have to look past it and keep moving forward. What’s in the past is the past. Learn from the mistakes that we did, and try to do better.”
