In knocking off the Johnston Panthers yesterday afternoon and moving to 8-0, the Hawks have now outscored their past three opponents by a collective score of 44-4. Obviously, it remains to be seen whether that's a statement about the strength of our guys or the relative play of their opponents, but for now, it seems as if the Hawks are hitting a stride.
Yesterday's game was broadcast live right here on The Network (and, of course, we once again experienced wi-fi issues, something that's really getting old now, but we managed to piece it together on the fly), and as we pointed out at the beginning of the broadcast, the Hawks' scoring output is a welcome change from last year, when the team struggled to cross the plate for much of last season and largely rode the arm of Mike King. Now, with a strong but young pitching staff and an offense putting up crooked numbers virtually every other inning, much of last year's nail-biting seems to be a thing of the past.
When sophomore John Willette singled home classmate Dante Baldelli with the team's 11th run in the bottom of the sixth, it marked the third consecutive contest in which the Hawks have invoked the "mercy" rule on their opponents (leading by 10 or more runs at the conclusion of five innings). Viewers can still watch the later portion of the game in the first Ustream box at the top of the page (though the quality isn't quite as good due to the reason mentioned above), and the earlier portion can be seen here:
Video streaming by UstreamIn addition to the third straight 10-run win for our guys, the other stories of the day were the wind (which forced us into the press box, rather than our usual roof-top perch in left-center field) and the continued hot bat of junior catcher Gian Martellini, who once again went 3 for 4, this time with two triples. Combine that output with his performance against Cranston East on Tuesday (3 for 4, two home runs - one of which was a grand slam), and Gian has accumulated 16 total bases in his last eight at-bats.
That's slugging.
John Willette helped in moving the line along by adding three hits and five RBI's out of the number nine spot in the order.
On the pitching side of things, sophomore Matt Kennedy threw five strong innings, allowing only a single hit and an unearned run while striking out four. He did, however, walk five, something on which he needs to improve. Senior Christian Travers pitched a scoreless top of the sixth, yielding two hits but striking out two as well.
Offensive stats for the game can be found below.
The Hawks are in action next on Saturday, when they travel to Woonsocket to take on the Villa Novans, and then on Monday, when they go up to Lincoln for a re-match with the Lions. The Network will next broadcast Hawks Baseball on Wednesday, when they take on Cranston West at Pepin Field. Game time is 4pm.
