KERNERSVILLE — Several elements during Friday’s game were similar to the previous night’s win for the Hamlet American Legion baseball team.
Replicating a complete game pitching performance, coupled with some timely hitting, Post 49 handed Lexington Post 8 a 5-2 loss in the teams’ non-conference meeting.
John Carre (North Moore) made his first appearance on the mound this summer and was efficient across seven innings. Allowing two unearned runs, Carre limited Lexington to just three hits and he struck out five batters.
Through the first three innings, Carre was perfect. Lexington scored both of its runs in the fourth before Carre bounced back with a 1-2-3 fifth inning.
Stranding two runners in the sixth, Carre faced five batters in the seventh. He got defensive help from second baseman Jabari Douglas (Richmond), who made a diving catch on a liner, and catcher Evan Hodges (Richmond) hosed a runner trying to swipe third base for the final out. Riley Brown (Richmond) applied the tag.
Head coach Chip Gordon complimented Hamlet’s efforts in the box, saying the team “had good approaches at the plate” against starting pitcher Conner Rinaldi (5.1 innings, three runs) and reliever Carson Everhart (1.2 innings, two runs).
Hamlet scored a run in the top of the fourth to make it a 1-0 game. Erasing a one-run deficit in the sixth, seven batters visited the box to record the team’s final four runs.
Carre reached on an error in the fourth and scored a few batters later when Brown launched a sacrifice fly near the warning track in center field.
Lexington used an RBI single and a passed ball to plate its runs in the home half to take a 2-1 lead.
With one out and runners on the corners, Carre helped himself with an RBI double the opposite way into left field to tie the game. Hodges, who singled for one of Hamlet’s eight hits in the game, scored from third.
On the very next offering from Everhart, Caden Nolan (Richmond) peppered a hard-hit ground ball past the third baseman into left field. Gavin Jones (Purnell Swett, walk), who moved to third on Carre’s double, scored to give Hamlet the lead for good.
Later in the inning with two away, Jason Walker (Richmond) provided a couple of insurance runs with a two-RBI base knock. He dropped a fly ball into shallow right field to bring in Carre and Nolan to pad the lead 5-2.
That three-run cushion was enough for Post 49 and Carre, who recorded his final strikeout for the third out in the sixth to leave runners at first and second.
A walk and a hit-by-pitch with two outs in the seventh were undone with Hodges’ throw to Brown to catch a would-be base stealer.
Nolan and Carre each doubled for Hamlet’s two extra-base hits and Nolan’s two hits matched Garrett Manning’s (Scotland) total for the team lead. Walker, Jones and Hodges each had a single.
Now 4-5 overall this season, Hamlet will return to Memorial Park Saturday to close its two-game series with Lexington. First pitch is at 7 p.m.
Sports editor’s note: Friday’s game was played without official umpires. The head coaches for each team called balls and strikes for the opposing team’s pitchers.
