By Rob Deweese
For The Republic
HOPE — The Class A No. 5 Hauser baseball team wore out the basepaths through the first three innings Friday night against visiting North Decatur.
The Jets put multiple baserunners on and scored in each frame, taking a 6-0 lead. That ended up being the appetizer, however, to the main course that was the fourth, where they scored 12 runs on eight hits en route to an 18-0, five-inning Mid-Hoosier Conference thrashing of the visiting Chargers.
The huge fourth inning started out innocently enough, when Jon Hatton singled but was promptly picked off of first for the first out. Trey Johnson followed with another single and moved to third on a double by Parker Eikbush. Kobe Meahl then popped out to first, leaving the Jets with runners on second and third with two out.
With the help of some shaky North Decatur defense, the next 12 Jets reached base safely. Pinch-runner Alex Pattingill and Eikbush scored the first two runs of the inning on a throwing error by the Chargers’ third baseman. After a walk to Jacob Luken, Aaron Mee and Jacob Johnson both singled, each driving in a run, and the rout was on. An error by the Charger left fielder on a hard hit ball by Sean Miller allowed the inning to continue.
At that point, North Decatur coach Steve Stirn decided to make a pitching change, replacing starter Tyler Walterman with Westin Swango. Swango promptly hit Hatton and walked Johnson to load the bases. An Eikbush RBI single and Meahl’s second double of the game brought in three more Jet runs. This biggest hit of the inning scored the final runs of the frame, with Kameron Lawson launching a three-run homer into left center.
When it was all over, the Jets had sent 17 batters to the plate and led 18-0.
“My approach was to take a two-strike at-bat because I have been in a slump. But he threw me a fastball, and when I hit it, I knew that I got it,” Lawson said.
Although Hauser pitcher Trey Johnson got a lot of run support, it was not necessary on this night. He threw five innings, allowing just three hits, striking out eight and walking two.
The only blip on the night for Johnson was the top of the fourth, when he walked two batters and allowed a single. He quickly righted himself, however, and struck out the next two batters to leave the bases loaded.
“I thought I threw well tonight,” Johnson reflected. “It got away a bit in the fourth inning, but I thought I spotted the ball better tonight. I left a couple of balls up and they hit it hard, but my velocity was there and my curve ball was breaking.”
On a night when eight of the nine Jet starters had at least one hit, there was little to complain about for Hauser coach Nate Long. He did however, find some room for improvement. Two Jet baserunners were picked off, which is something he wants his team to work on.
“Coming into tonight, I wanted to work on two things — our approach at the plate, we want to be aggressive, but swing at our ball in the zone. I also want us to be aggressive on the base paths, but not so aggressive that we leave early,” Long said.
Miller, Hatton, Eikbush, Meahl, Mee, and Jacob Johnson each had multiple hits for Hauser (8-1, 4-0). Lawson had four RBIs on his home run and a sacrifice fly.
