HAMLET — Finally getting a break in the weather this week, the Hamlet American Legion baseball team returned to the diamond and got back to the .500 mark.
Following three postponements due to rain and field conditions, Post 49 capped the first day of the North Carolina Legion Baseball Hall of Fame Classic with a victory.
Thanks to five scoreless innings on the mound from starting pitcher Evan Hodges (Richmond), Hamlet cruised to a 7-1 win over Eastern Randolph Post 81.
Hodges, who made his first start on the mound this season, struck out seven batters. He allowed five hits and didn’t walk a batter. He faced four batters or less through his first four innings, including a 1-2-3 top of the second inning.
Head coach Chip Gordon elected to go with relievers Brady Fowler (Montgomery Central) and Dylan Tilson (Scotland) to each pitch one inning. Fowler allowed an earned run in the sixth inning and Tilson stranded a leadoff base runner by retiring the next three batters in the seventh.
Facing left-handed starting pitcher Luke Johnson, Hamlet started its scoring with three runs in the second inning and added another run in the fourth. Johnson took the loss, throwing 3.1 innings and giving up six earned runs on four hits and five walks.
Reliever Aaron Miller, another lefty, threw the final 2.2 innings for Eastern Randolph. He surrendered an earned run on four hits and one free pass.
Hodges stranded a one-out single in the top of the first inning at third base with a pair of strikeouts. Throwing 18 pitches in the second inning, he sandwiched a pair of groundouts around another punch out.
Riley Brown (Richmond) became the first of five Hamlet batters to record at least one run batted in during the bottom of the second. He lined an RBI double to the right field corner to score Caden Nolan (Richmond, hit-by-pitch) from second base.
With courtesy runner Ethan Oxendine (Purnell Swett) on third base for catcher Jacob Williams (Union Pines, walk), Isaac Hinshaw (Richmond) delivered in the next at-bat. He roped a long single to the gap in right-center field that one-hopped to the wall, scoring Oxendine.
A walk to Collin Hill (Richmond) loaded the bases and Hamlet’s final run of the frame came when Garrett Manning (Scotland) lifted a sacrifice fly to left field. Hustling home from third to beat the relay throw was Brown to make it 3-0.
Hodges stranded a two-out double in the top of the third, which led to another insurance run in the home half.
With two away, Hinshaw recorded his game-high second RBI with a line drive single to center field. Hodges, who drew a leadoff walk, trotted home safely from third base.
Again in the fourth, Hodges dealt to just four batters. A pair of Ks was followed by a one-out single, which was stranded when Hodges made a 1-3 putout on a swinging bunt down the third base line.
Manning started the three-run bottom of the fourth with a one-out double to the alley in right-center. Following a walk to Oxendine to put two runners on, Hodges helped his cause on the second offering from Miller with an RBI single on a hard ground ball back up the middle.
Smooth base running by Oxendine resulted in the next run. He tagged up to third base following a Nolan fly out and scored when the relay throw sailed into Eastern Randolph’s dugout.
Leading 6-0, Hamlet scored its final run of the game when Williams unhitched the trailer and hustled out an RBI triple in the next at-bat. His long fly ball beat Johnson to the right field corner, allowing Hodges to score.
Two singles to start the top of the fifth for Post 81 were erased when Hodges sat the next three batters down in order.
Fowler walked the first two batters he faced in the sixth and the lead runner scored on a wild pitch with two outs.
Nolan and Hodges traded fielders’ choices in the bottom of the seventh for the final two outs after Tilson struck out a batter for the first out.
Three of Hamlet’s eight hits went for extra bases — Brown and Manning each had a double and Williams had a triple. In addition to Hinshaw’s two RBI, Brown, Hodges, Manning and Williams each had one RBI.
Hamlet (2-2) will conclude a four-game Sunday spread of games to wrap up the HOF Classic against Chatham County Post 292. First pitch at Memorial Park is set for 5:30 p.m.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Saturday’s win soon.
