HAMLET — The front half of Saturday’s doubleheader got the Hamlet American Legion Junior baseball team back in the win column.
Hosting Fayetteville Post 71, the Junior 49ers rolled to an 11-1 victory in five innings.
Earning the win on the mound in the mercy-rule victory was Colson Smith, who threw 54 pitches in four innings of work. He allowed one earned run on two hits and struck out seven batters.
After allowing a run on a balk in the top of the first inning, Smith faced four batters in the second and stranded a runner on first base. He followed that with consecutive 1-2-3 frames in the third and fourth, with two Ks in each inning.
Noah Stubbs pitched the fifth inning to close out the win. He faced four hitters and used a 1-3-2 double play on a bunt back to the mound to get the first two outs.
Hamlet, which ended a three-game losing streak, scored four runs in the first to take the lead for good. The Junior 49ers added a run in the third and broke the game open with six runs in the fourth.
A trio of players — Smith, Jakob Trexler and Jake Veach — had two runs batted in each. Julius Bowden, Dean Cottle and Drew Gause all had one RBI.
Bowden started Hamlet’s scoring by tying the game on an RBI single in the first, using a ground ball to center to plate Wallace Herring (error). Veach made it 2-1 and drove in his first RBI on a ground out to second to bring in Bowden.
Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Smith helped himself with a two-RBI base hit that landed along the right field line. Scoring were Gause (single) and Jaxton Watson (walk) to give Hamlet a 4-1 lead.
With one away in the third, Gause lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Veach (hit-by-pitch).
To begin the six-run fourth inning, Watson, Colton Nelson and Smith drew free passes to load the bases for Cottle. He also reached on a base on balls to score Watson. Courtesy runner Jake Smith slid safely across the plate to make it a six-run advantage on a wild pitch.
Trexler stepped to the plate and extended Hamlet’s lead to 9-1 when he did a job with a two-RBI single back up the middle.
Later in the inning, still with the bases loaded, Veach lined a single to right field to score Trexler. The game’s final run scored when Herring (double) raced home on a wild pitch.
Hamlet improved to 2-4 overall with the victory.
The Richmond Observer will publish the results of the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader soon, as well as photo galleries.
