HAMLET — A ground ball back to Trace Ricketts on the mound, and the ensuing throw to Josh Griggs at first base, secured Hamlet Post 49’s first win of the season on Friday.
Hosting Hampstead Post 167, Hamlet relied on its best defensive performance of the season, coupled with strong outings from pitchers Ra’Nik Little and Ricketts, to earn a 3-2 win.
Little started on the hill and went four innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits. He struck out three batters and walked four.
Ricketts tossed the final three innings and kept the one-run lead intact, punching out four batters and giving up just one hit.
Head coach Chip Gordon praised his team’s defense as the key to Friday’s victory, and said he couldn’t have asked for a better performance.
“Playing defense is big and we haven’t played a lot of great defense this summer,” Gordon said. “But tonight, when the ball was hit at us, we made the plays. Cooper (Sessoms) did a heck of a job at second, and both pitchers fielded their positions well tonight.
“Jake (Clemmons) caught a heck of a game for us and he made a great tag on a squeeze attempt in the first to save a run,” he added. “The other big defensive play we had was when Ra’Nes (Little) threw a missile from center to nail a runner trying to stretch a single into a double.”
Ra’Nik Little delivers a pitch during the top of the second inning of Friday’s win. (Kyle Pillar)
Gordon noted Post 49 only made one throwing error in the game, which ended up not leading to a run. He said Hamlet played a defensive game that would have allowed Post 49 to compete with any other team in the conference.
With runners on second and third in the top of the first inning, Hampstead attempted a safety squeeze but batter Luke Cutler missed the ball. Running home was Kolby Lanier, who was tagged out by a sprawling Clemmons to record the second out.
Ra’Nik Little pitched a 1-2-3 top of the second inning and Hamlet responded with two runs in the bottom half. David O’Neal led off the inning with a single and stole second base, and scored on a throwing error following a Ra’Nes Little ground ball to third.
Ra’Nes Little moved to second on the same error and Chandler Orr moved him to third in the next at-bat on a grounder to first. Sessoms dug in and recorded an RBI on a groundout to third, allowing Ra’Nes Little to race home.
Ra’Nik Little faced just four batters in the top of the third and stranded another runner at third, which allowed Hamlet to add another run to its lead in the home half.
Kole Dutton led off the bottom of the third with a hit-by-pitch, stole second and moved to third on a ground out. Hampstead’s starting pitcher Kyle Lechmanick threw a ball in the dirt, allowing Dutton to make it a 3-0 ball game.
David O’Neal beats the throw home to score Hamlet’s first run against Post 167. (Kyle Pillar)
Post 167 scored its two runs in top of the fourth on a Lechmanick single to center, which scored Kyle Donaldson and Jared Giddens. Lechmanick tried to stretch the gap shot into a double, but Ra’Nes Little threw a strike to Ricketts at second, who applied the tag for the third out.
Gordon inserted Ricketts on the mound to start the fifth inning, and he threw just 34 pitches to record three scoreless innings and ice the win.
Ra’Nik Little and Ricketts combined to strand four runners on base, while Hamlet had several other scoring opportunities but stranded six runners of its own.
“Ra’Nik had his best outing of the year, and it started from the time he stepped in the bullpen to warm up,” Gordon said. “I couldn’t have asked for a more focused outing from him, and you could tell from his demeanor that nothing was going to shake him.
“Trace was lights out like always,” he added. “If we can pitch like the way we did tonight, limit the walks and play defense, we can beat anybody that we play.”
Hamlet registered five hits on the night, all singles, with a team-high two coming from Clemmons. Griggs and O’Neal added singles, with Orr beating an infield dribbler late in the game for the team’s final hit.
Sessoms’ RBI was Post 49’s lone RBI of the game, and scoring once each were Dutton, Ra’Nes Little and O’Neal.
Cooper Sessoms connects on his RBI groundout during Hamlet’s first win of the season. (Kyle Pillar)
Lechmanick pitched four innings, allowed three runs on two hits and struck out five batters. Mason Myhand pitched two innings of relief for Post 167, giving up no runs on three hits and striking out three.
“Offensively, we had some good swings tonight,” Gordon said. “We still have some work to do learning our hitting zones, but our kids are getting there. We’re starting to put it all together.
“It sure feels good to get our first win,” he closed. “It’s been a long time since Post 49 has won a baseball game. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into starting this program back up, and even though it took longer than we wanted to get our first W, I couldn’t have asked for a better, more complete game than we played tonight.”
Hamlet (1-8) will return to play on Monday against Port City Post 545. The game will be played at Laney High School and begin at 7 p.m.
