Stryker Gill
HOPE — Hauser outscored visiting Shelbyville 1-0 over the final two innings of Wednesday’s baseball season opener.
Unfortunately for a young Jets squad, they had fallen behind 17-0 after the first three innings, and the Golden Bears walked away with a 17-1 victory.
“We play a hard schedule, and we’re going to take our lumps,” Hauser coach Nathan Long said. “It’s about growing and learning and trying our best to move forward as a group and to get better.”
Three Jets pitchers combined to walk 13 batters and hit three others, and the defense committed five errors.
Owen McIntyre, one of only two senior starters for Hauser, walked the first four batters of the game, then allowed a single, and all five of those runners scored for the Golden Bears. Shelbyville added three runs off McIntyre in the second, then put up nine against reliever Sam Louden in the third.
“I think a little bit of it is maybe jitters those first couple innings, whatever you want to call it,” Long said. “But we didn’t make plays behind those pitchers, either. Now, did we walk a lot of guys? Of course. But when we had a chance to make a couple plays, we added to the fire.”
Zayne McCanlis allowed only two hits and struck out six in shutting out the Golden Bears over the fourth and fifth innings.
“It was a great job by Zayne throwing strikes and mixing pitches in,” Long said. “He did a great job keeping them off balance.”
Meanwhile, the Jets put runners on base in every inning and had runners on third with less than two out in the first and second, but couldn’t push them across. They got on the board in the fifth when Stryker Gill smacked a two-out double, went to third when R.J. Foster reached on an error and scored on a passed ball.
Holden Pittman
The Jets started three freshmen and two sophomores. Sophomore Holden Pittman went 2 for 2 with a double, and Gill, a freshman, went 2 for 3 with two doubles for Hauser’s four hits.
“You want to see guys barrel the ball up,” Long said. “I thought when we made contact, we hit the ball pretty hard tonight. It’s nice to see those guys drive the gap. They’re good hitters, and we expect that from them.”
