HAMLET — A pair of left-handed arms controlled the tempo of Tuesday’s Hamlet American Legion junior baseball game.
Summer baseball officially kicked off at Memorial Park, ending in an 8-2 victory for the Junior 49ers over Liberty Post 81.
Starting Area 3 Conference play with a victory, Post 49 dotted the scoreboard with runs and never trailed.
Getting the nod on the mound to start the game was lefty Noah Trexler, who allowed just one earned run in five innings of work. He allowed six hits and struck out five batters, all while stranding eight runners on base.
Fellow southpaw Colton Trexler pitched the final two innings of relief for Hamlet. Keeping Liberty’s batters off balanced, Colton Trexler gave up an earned run on a hit and struck out two batters.
The win marked not only the first of the season for the Junior 49ers, but also the first for first-year head coach Anthony Hailey and his staff.
Hamlet scored five runs in a breakaway third inning. The Junior 49ers added two runs in the fifth and its final run in the sixth.
In the first and third innings, Noah Trexler escaped a pair of two-on, no-out jams without allowing a run. Both times he retired the next three batters after the first two batters reached.
The first inning ended with three straight strikeouts, as both times he left two runners in scoring position. Trexler faced just four batters in the second and left an additional runner at second.
Those productive innings in the field allowed Hamlet to pounce ahead 5-0 with a five-run bottom of the third. The Junior 49ers sent 11 batters to the plate and scored their first run when Trexler (walk) scored on a bloop RBI single to left field by Jake Smith, the first of his game-high two RBI.
A passed ball later allowed Smith to score from third to make it 2-0. With the bases loaded, Jaxton Watson kept the inning going with an RBI groundout to third base, which scored Cooper Perkins (single).
Taking advantage of another passed ball, Emery Owens (walk) scored Hamlet’s fourth run of the inning. Helping himself out with two gone, Noah Trexler drew a bases-loaded walk to bring Jackson Parsons (walk) home to make it 5-0.
Post 81 scored its first run in the top of the fourth inning on an RBI base hit. On the same sequence, catcher Noah Wilson hosed the runner out at second base, who was trying to advance on the relay home. Applying the tag was Smith.
Noah Trexler mirrored his first and third inning performances in the fifth. He let the first two batters reach safely but dug deep to retire the next three batters in order on an infield fly, a strikeout and a groundout back to the mound.
Hamlet added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a six-run lead. A leadoff single by Parsons to right field later scored when Wilson slapped an RBI single past the shortstop.
Smith dug in for the next at-bat and scorched an RBI double to the alley in right-center to bring home Riley Fields (walk) from second to make it 7-1.
Colton Trexler entered the game in the sixth for Hamlet and allowed a run with one out. He worked out of the two-on, one-out pickle by getting a pair of flyouts to Perkins in center field to end the threat.
Post 49 scored its final run of the game when Perkins grounded out to second base, plating Parsons (walk) from third.
In the final half-inning, Colton Trexler walked the first two batters, but used a strikeout and a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.
Hamlet connected for eight hits in the win, led by two hits each from Smith and Perkins. Parsons, Wilson, Brody Bryant and Colton Trexler each had a single.
In addition to Smith’s two RBI, Watson, Wilson, Noah Trexler and Fields all brought in one run.
The Junior 49ers (1-0, 1-0 Area 3) return to action Friday at Moore County Post 12. The game will be played at North Moore High School and start at 7 p.m.
