Hawks nip Hornets in IVC clash
Even though Hiland defeated Malvern 4-2 in Inter-Valley Conference baseball action Thursday, April 22, at Lehman Field, Hawks coach Tom Gibson was left scratching his head.
“We didn’t play up to our expectations,” Gibson said. “We made too many mental mistakes, especially base running snafus that nearly cost us.
“We’ve got to get this out of our system because we have a big week ahead of us,” the coach continued. “We’ve got Ridgewood on Monday, New Philadelphia on Tuesday, Garaway Wednesday and TCC on Thursday. We’ll see what we’re made of.”
Hiland’s deep pitching rotation will be tested next week for sure, but it was that depth that paid off against the Hornets.
Luke Burch had a hard time finding the strike zone on Thursday, walking seven in two and one-third innings of work. He walked the bases loaded and gave up a sacrifice fly to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Burch’s control problems continued in the third inning, and after walking two with one out, Danny Beachy was called on for relief, and the senior delivered.
Beachy got a soft fly to left and a called strike out to end the threat.
Grant Troyer got a bunt single to start the Hiland third. He stole second and went to third on a ground ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Beachy to tie the game at 1-1.
Beachy struck out the first two hitters in the Malvern fourth, and after allowing a single to lead-off hitter Shawn Kettering, catcher Hayden Mobley gunned down Kettering trying to swipe second.
Mobley reached on an error to open the fourth for the Hawks. He stole second and scored on a double by Nicky Yoder. Yoder moved to third on a ground ball and scored on a ground out by Jalen Miller, giving the Hawks a 3-1 lead.
Julian Guiao singled and went to third on a double down the line by Adam Wackerly. After a strikeout of Tyler Crawford, Beachy induced a ground ball back to the box, but Guiao scored on a bad throw home. The next batter grounded back to the pitcher, but this time Beachy fielded the ball and ran at the base runner trying to score from third. He flipped the ball to Mobley for the out. A pop out to second ended the Malvern rally with Hiland holding a 3-2 lead.
Mobley drove in Johnny Raber with an insurance run in the fifth, and Jalen Miller blanked the Hornets over the final two innings to register the save. The hard-throwing lefty struck out five and walked one.
Beachy got the win, giving up a run on three hits. He fanned three. Between Miller, Beachy and Burch, the Hawks struck out 12 Malvern batters.
“We know what we’re going to get when Danny takes the mound,” Gibson said. “Jalen is a bit of an unknown. We don’t know how good he can be because we haven’t used him that much yet this year. He was overpowering today.”
The Hawks improved to 11-1 with the win, 7-1 in the IVC.
