HAMLET – Hamlet Post 49 hopes to return to form Monday after falling in two of their last three contests, including Thursday’s 5-0 loss to Davidson County Post 8.
After defeating the Davidson a week ago on the road 7-3, it was the Post 8 who returned home victorious with multiple errors keeping Hamlet out of contention Thursday.
“It’s never fun to lose, but this is a wake-up call. They have to know they can’t just walk out onto the field, and people are going to roll over for them just because they’re 6-2 or they’re on a winning streak,” Post 49 coach Chip Gordon said. “They have to know they have to get in the box and compete every pitch. They have to get on the mound and compete. They have to expect the ball. We were flat tonight. You can have a million reasons why you’re flat, but there are no excuses. When the umpire says it’s time to play ball, then you’re going to have to compete. We didn’t compete tonight, and they outplayed us.”
Despite a rocky night overall, pitcher Mason Konen finished the evening with four strikeouts, but Hamlet’s bats could not overcome a four-run deficit by the bottom of the third inning. With his team down and needing a change of pace, Gordon opted to reliever Jason Walker, who allowed a single run over three innings of work while tallying four strikeouts. Offensively, first baseman Isaac Hinshaw, right fielder Landon Tayler and right fielder Carter Bean went a respectable 1-3, but could not generate enough momentum to turn those hits into runs.
‘[Davidson] is a good team. We beat them at their place. They ran two good arms out there tonight, but no arms that are better than what we’ve seen. We just didn’t make adjustments in the box. I thought we had some guys with two strikeouts that we didn’t need to pitch. We booted some balls on the infield. We booted the ball in the outfield. We made an error on a pick-off throw. We just didn’t play our style of baseball,” Gordon said.
Although falling Thursday, the week was not a complete loss for Post 49. Hamlet downed Rowan County 3-0 Tuesday with Riley Brown picking up the complete-game shutout. Brown allowed only three hits and two walks while tallying three strikeouts. Offensively, Post 49 had a banner day with eight hits. Shortstop James Eason, center fielder Jeremiah Ritter and Williams tied for the team lead in RBIs with one each.
“If we play our style of baseball, then we’re hard to beat. We did not come out and play our style of baseball, and we lost (Thursday). I already told them ‘You know how this feels. You felt it. Now, forget about it, and get ready to play on Monday. We have 24 games on the schedule, and we’re not even nine games in,” Gordon said.
With Thursday’s loss, Hamlet Post 49 falls to 6-3. They will have the weekend off, then head on the road Monday to face Mocksville-Davie Legion. Coach Gordon believes the weekend will provide his team with an opportunity to decompress from playing nine games in just under two weeks.
“We all need a break. The guys need a break and rest. We played roughly nine games in two weeks. No high school plays nine games in two weeks. Their legs are tired. They’re tired. They’ve had a lot of late nights,” Gordon said. “I purposefully scheduled a lot of away games early in the season to get us battle-tested on the road … We wanted to get those out of the way now. It will be good for them to get a couple of good nights of sleep.”
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