Howell freshman, sophomore lead baseball win over Brighton

BRIGHTON — Danny Hampton and Nick Hoorn have prepared throughout their youth baseball careers for the opportunity to play for Howell’s varsity team.

Once they arrived, they had no interest in simply taking up a roster spot and easing their way into the top level of high school ball.

Hampton, a freshman, and Hoorn, a sophomore, play prominent roles for a Highlander team that has a 16-9 record following a 12-2 rout of ninth-ranked Brighton.

Hoorn went 4-for-5 and drove in five runs, boosting his team-high total to 24 runs batted in. Hampton also went 4-for-5 from the leadoff spot, giving him a team-leading .421 batting average. Hoorn is a close second at .420.

Defensively, they are the Highlanders’ keystone combination, Hampton playing second base and Hoorn shortstop, just as they have on the same teams growing up.

“They played at a high level of summer baseball and we kind of projected them through the system,” Howell coach Jason Ladd said. “We knew what we had in them. They came in and filled in for us very nicely in the middle.”

Hampton showed up for tryouts in March having already experienced being a varsity athlete in basketball. He averaged 3.7 points and shot 54.5% from the field coming off the bench.

“I was definitely more nervous during basketball season,” Hampton said. “That was my first year on a varsity team. I got the jitters out a little bit now that baseball season’s coming around. I think I’m a lot more confident now.”

Of his two sports, Hampton prefers baseball.

“It doesn’t stress me out as much,” Hampton said. “There’s not as much running and conditioning and I can just go out there and be me, help my teammates out. I think the whole bond is much better in baseball, because we get to talk to each other a lot more during the season and practices, so it’s really fun.”

Hampton moved into the leadoff spot in Howell’s 19th game of the season April 24 against Plymouth. Senior Owen Elsey, an all-county selection last year, moved from leadoff into the No. 2 slot. Elsey is third on the team with a .400 average.

“I felt like (Hampton) was getting more quality at-bats, so we felt like it was a good situation where Owen could kind of relax a little bit more,” Ladd said. “Daniel seemed to be hitting better in crucial situations with runners in scoring position. Now it’s flipped a little bit, and Owen’s driving guys in. So, it’s worked out well for us.”

With no room on a senior-heavy varsity roster last year, Hoorn played on the junior varsity as a freshman. Once he made the varsity, he earned a spot as the clean-up hitter.

“There’s good pitching up here, a lot better than JV,” Hoorn said. “You’ve just got to make the adjustment. You have to know there’s going to be a lot of off-speed in good counts, so you’ve got to make sure you’re ready for that. I feel like I’m doing pretty good, especially as a sophomore.”

Hoorn had a run-scoring single in Howell’s three-run first inning, a run-scoring double in the sixth and drove in three runs with a double in the seventh.

Howell took a 6-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning before Brighton (15-6) scored its two runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Highlanders broke it open with a six-run seventh inning.

David Zilch pitched six innings for Howell, allowing four hits, two runs and striking out seven.

Evan Larson was 2-for-4 for Brighton, which has had nine double-digit scoring games, but has also been held to two runs or less in four of the past six contests.

“We’re trying to find consistency in a lot of different areas, feeling more comfortable with where we’re at in terms of that,” Brighton coach Charlie Christner said. “That’s just the biggest thing right now, knowing what I’m going to get each day and what we’re going to get each day. It has not been consistent to this point.”

Howell will host Brighton at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The teams would meet in the district semifinals at 10 a.m. June 3 at Brighton if the Bulldogs beat South Lyon East in a pre-district game on May 30.

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Howell freshman, sophomore lead baseball win over Brighton