For the Daily Journal
HOPE
The way first-year Edinburgh baseball coach Dennis Smith figures, his Lancers won’t see much better pitching than what they’ve seen the first four games of this season.
Class A No. 8 Hauser hurled its second consecutive shutout of Edinburgh on Thursday. The Jets followed Wednesday’s season-opening 11-0 win at Edinburgh with a 10-0, five-inning Mid-Hoosier Conference triumph in their home opener.
Hauser’s Trey Johnson fired a three-hitter and struck out 10 on Thursday. That followed Aaron Mee’s one-hitter with 11 strikeouts on Wednesday.
“Mee and Johnson are elite pitchers in 1A baseball,” Smith said. “We’ve seen some elite pitching. Even our first two games, Brown County, we saw a great pitcher, and Trinity, we saw a great pitcher. We’re probably not going to see any better pitching in our 1A schedule than what we’ve seen.”
The best scoring chance for the Lancers (0-4, 0-2) came in the top of the first. Coltan Henderson reached on an error, and Ethan Armel singled with one out. But Johnson came up with back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.
The Jets (2-0, 2-0) got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first off Edinburgh starter Henderson. Hauser then put up four runs in the second and added a run in the third to make it 7-0. After Armel came on for the Lancers in the fourth, the Jets scored a run in that inning and ended the game with two runs in the fifth.
“I think our pitching and our defense seems to be ready to go,” Hauser coach Nate Long said. “Our hitting still needs a little bit of work, but I thought our at bats were better. I thought our guys were a little more relaxed tonight.”
Edinburgh’s lone hit after the first was a one-out single by Ian Buchanan in the fourth.
“I thought our approach was better at the plate,” Smith said. “We were a little bit more aggressive. I think the more at bats we get, the better we’ll get. We just have to keep seeing pitches and keep getting at bats. I think we’re going in the right direction. Like I just told them, ‘Just stay the course, and things will get better.’”