CHHS Trojans start 2-0
Published 3:00 am Tuesday, February 16, 2016
The Charles Henderson Trojans baseball team picked up their first two wins of the 2016 season on Monday morning 17-0 and 7-0 over Andalusia.
In what was supposed to be a tournament setting, both Charles Henderson and Andalusia were the only teams to make the trip after the others cancelled due to weather concerns.
The Trojans took an early 10-0 lead in the first inning of the first game.
“To get these two wins under my belt makes me feel good,” said first-time head coach William Teal. “It makes me feel like this team is heading in the right direction. We can still improve in a lot of things. There is always something else to improve on.”
The Trojans did everything right in the early going during game one.
“We swung the bat well and we were good on the bases,” Teal said. “We were able to get from first to third on base hits and we traded places with each other at second base with doubles. Everybody did what they were supposed to do and they really excepted their roles.”
Even with the big lead, the Trojans still needed good shut down innings from starting pitcher Chase Hartley, who pitched all of the game’s four innings.
“It really helped that Hartley kept putting shut down innings up for us,” Teal said. “After we put up some runs he just shut the door and killed their momentum.”
Hartley pitched four innings, allowing just two hits and striking out six batters. The aggressiveness on the base path was a welcome sight for Teal.
“It was really impressive to see that,” Teal said. “That is something that we hope to be this year. We want to be a good base running team because we have the speed to do it.”
In game two the Trojans were able to carry over their momentum and focus and defeated the Andalusia 7-0.
“It’s hard to keep energy going after scoring so many runs in the first game,” Teal said. “A lot of guys will fold and say we are playing better than this team. Our guys did a good job not doing that.”
The Trojans scored three more runs in the opening inning of game two and the Trojans didn’t let off the gas from there.
Players that stood out to coach Teal on Monday were Nick Lewis who hit a homerun. Teal said Lewis has probably having the best game for the Trojans with the bat. Other players that stood out were Bryson Gandy, Hartley along with his pitching picked up a couple of hits and Jackson Murphy had a few hits including one that bounced off the wall in the opening inning of game one.
The Trojans will be back in action when they travel to play J.B Long in a double-header on Thursday beginning at 4:30.