Eli Miller
HOPE — A night after overcoming a one-run deficit to beat Edinburgh, the Hauser baseball team again found itself with a one-run deficit in Friday’s rematch.
As they did on Thursday, the Jets took a little time to get the bats going before pulling away in the latter part of the game. This time, it resulted in a 7-2 Mid-Hoosier Conference victory.
“It took a little bit to adjust, but we made some pretty good adjustments at the plate, and I felt like our bats were a lot better tonight consistently through the lineup than even (Thursday) night and the games before that,” Hauser coach Nate Long said. “These kids need to see runs across home plate. They need to see hits out there. They need to see that bat hit the baseball hard, and these last two games, I felt like we were able to do that.”
Pitching was a constant both nights for the Jets (2-2, 2-0). Koby Johnson threw a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts on Thursday, and Eli Miller and Holden Pittman combined on a two-hitter with 13 Ks on Friday.
“Our pitching the last two outings has been really good,” Long said. “If we can clean up the defense behind us, that’s going to help us along the way.”
Miller struck out 11 and walked five in six innings.
“Today, it was all about throwing strikes,” Miller said. “I knew I had the guys behind me. When I go out there, I’m not trying to overpower guys. I just need to throw strikes, and when I throw strikes, good things happen.”
The Lancers (0-4, 0-2) took advantage of a walk to Jarrett Turner, a hit-by-pitch to Travis Jones and Ian Buchanan reaching on an error to take a 1-0 lead in the first. Hauser took the lead with two in the second on singles by 7-through-9 batters Caleb Walker, Grant Louden and Zayne McCanlis off Gabe Bennett.
Zayne McCanlis
The Jets added a run in the third when Pittman led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on an error. They made it 4-1 in the fifth when Levi Gollmer led off with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Sam Miller.
Edinburgh cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth when Riley Palmeter reached on an error, stole second and scored on a single by Turner. But Hauser came back with three in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by an RBI-single from McCanlis and an RBI-triple by Simeon Wasil.
“The biggest thing with us is throwing strikes and two-out situations,” Edinburgh coach Dennis Smith said. “That was the same thing that happened (Thursday) night in the sixth inning. We let a snowball turn into an avalanche. We only gave up three runs (in the sixth), but we could have been out of the inning with no runs with a chance to hit against a new pitcher that we could have handled a little better.”
McCanlis finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs for the Jets, who pounded out 10 hits. Wasil went 2 for 4 with a double and a triple, and Gollmer went 2 for 4.
“After a slow start to the season, we’re starting to get our bats woke up a little bit,” Miller said. “I think we’re going to do some damage the rest of the season.”
Besides the RBI-single by Turner, Buchanan had the only other hit for the Lancers.
“Bats were not where we needed to be tonight,” Smith said. “There are still a couple things here and there that we need to fix, but for the most part, I think we hung in there. I think we had them on the ropes for a little bit.”
