A single inning did in Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn as the baseball team sought to win the season opener. OABCIG scored all five of its runs in the third inning, with only one of the runs being earned. That was enough to give the Falcons a 5-3 win over HMS May 15 at Hartley. The Hawks committed five errors in the inning.
“Tough loss last night,” said HMS head coach Jeremy Gloden. “Just had one bad inning where we had multiple chances to stop their rally, but ended up allowing four runs with two outs. However, I was very proud of how we continued to battle and gave ourselves a chance. We had a few guys in new spots and you saw some of those growing pains last night.”
Despite the loss, there were things the Hawks could be happy about. “One of the biggest positives was our pitching,” noted Gloden. “Tyson (Tessum) pitched a heck of a game last night and deserved the win. He had 10 strikeouts, one walk, and only allowed one earned run. Tanner Tesch came in and finished the seventh inning. They both put a lot of time in this offseason and I was happy to see their hard work paying off. Jacob Cates called a great game behind the plate.”
HMS managed just three hits in the game and struck out 16 times. “One thing we will need to improve on is our hitting and our approach at the plate. We had too many swings and misses. Didn’t put enough balls in play to put pressure on their defense. We will need to do a better job of this moving forward.”
The Hawks took an early lead with a run in the first. Trenton Vollink drew a walk and went to second on a passed ball. That put him in position to score on a single by Cates. Trailing 5-1, HMS tried to rally in the bottom of the third. Vollink was on base again, this time after a base hit. A passed ball and an error on a ball put in play by Tessum allowed Vollink to score. The final Hawk run came in the fifth. Ethan Diehm walked and stole second. Ben Waddell followed with an RBI single.
Tessum went 6-1/3 innings on the mound, yielding five hits. Tesch struck out both of the batters he faced. OABCIG left a total of five runners on base while the Hawks stranded three. There were seven errors in all for HMS. The Falcons had just one miscue.
OABCIG 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 – 5
HMS 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 – 3