Hatchets drop PAC game to Princeton
May 2—Although the Hatchets (5-12) got a strong effort from a pair of freshmen pitchers, seven errors proved to be the biggest factor in a 7-1 loss to PAC foe Princeton (12-6) on Tuesday at the Complex. The win was sixth straight for PCHS and the ninth loss in 10 games for WHS.
"Alton Ostby fought all night and threw the ball well. He got in a little jam the first inning, hit a couple guys and a couple pitches got away from him. I thought he buckled down, settled down and kept us in the game, he gave us a shot. We just don't hit enough. Offensively, we leave too many runners on base. We just don't seem to put anything together offensively. And we give up too many bases time defensively," said WHS coach Steve Reed.
"I wouldn't mind as much if we would actually get beat. I could live with that, but we've just killed ourselves. A majority of our losses had been give a runner there and give a runner here. The next thing you know, you're down 4-0 and you look up and they've got one hit. That can't happen, it's not just one or two games, it's been majority of our losses. It's the same song and dance and we are running out of time. I mean May is here."
The Tigers got on the board in the top of the first, as two hit batsmen and an error led to a 2-0 Princeton lead.
However, Trey James and Ostby both singled to open the Hatchet half of the inning, but Tiger pitcher Riken Burkett was able to settle down to keep the Hatchets off the board.
Both teams had runners on third during the second inning, but neither were able to do any damage.
WHS again put its first two runners on in the third, but again Burkett was able to work his way out of a jam without any damage.
Princeton extended the lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth as Quinn Bush opened the inning with a double followed by Damion Thompson's single. Thompson worked his way around to third and scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0. Although Ostby had the bases load, he was able to come up with two strikeouts to limit the damage.
WHS loaded the bases again in the bottom of the fourth, Sean Watkins hit a soft grounder that was mishandled and allowed Rylan Memering to score and make it 4-1 but a double play stopped the rally.
James came in to take over on the hill and an error allowed Bush to reach and eventually score to make it 5-1. The Tigers added an addition run in top of the sixth, again as an error led to a base runner and a run scoring double.
Washington again had a pair of base runners in the bottom of the sixth, but Princeton brought in Mater Cowen who put out the fire.
Princeton added a seventh run in the top of the seventh, but centerfielder Hunter Walls made an exceptional catch to save several runs. Unfortunately, WHS was unable to get anything going in the seventh.
WHS travels to North Posey on Thursday and North Knox on Friday.
