Daphne takes series

Trojans are now 13-4 overall and 2-1 in 6A Area 4 baseball play
Monday, March 16, 2009
By DAVID LEE
Sports Correspondent

Daphne's baseball team won two out of three games against Satsuma over the weekend.

The first win came on the road Friday night as the Trojans notched a 10-4 victory. Then on Saturday morning at home the Daphne squad beat the Gators, 7-1, in the opening game of a doubleheader. In the second contest of the twin-bill, however, Satsuma roared back to take an 8-5 victory as the Trojans saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end. Still, Daphne is 13-4 overall and 2-1 in the 6A Area 4 race, while the Gators fall to 7-8 overall and 1-2 in the area race.

"To take two out of three games from a decent team was good but I was disappointed with how we played in the third game," said Daphne coach Joe Hutchins, talking about the series. "We didn't show up in that third game. The kids are young though and they played hard this weekend."

Following are briefs on each of the contests in the series:

Daphne 10, Satsuma 4

SATSUMA — Conner Reese (now 3-2 on the mound) was masterful in the game, almost going the distance as he tossed 6 innings, allowing seven hits, striking out seven batters and walking three in the contest as Daphne won 10-4.

The Gators couldn't do much at all at the plate until the seventh inning when Reese was getting tired as his pitch count continued to climb.

"Conner pitched really well for us in the game," said Hutchins. "He got a little tired at the end of the game but he gave us a chance to win."

At the plate, the Trojans pounded out hit after hit, a lot of them for extra bases.

"We had rallies in just about every inning against Satsuma in that first game," said Hutchins. "Our kids had a lot of clutch hits."

Overall, the Trojans had 14 hits as Russ Mosley led the way with two doubles, a single and three RBIs; Tyler Powell had two singles and two RBIs; Jared Olson had a single and a double; Brandon Peterson had a single and a double; Eric Britain had a double and two singles; Mason Hutchins added two singles and an RBI; Jordan Blanchette and Reese each had a double and Jake Maske had a single. For the Gators, Bryant Howell had two singles; Jared Brannon had three singles; Cody Broadus had a double; Jacob Noble had an RBI single, while Steven Lumpkin and Johnathan Byrd each had a sacrifice fly.

For Satsuma, Jake Hyde (now 2-2 on the year) took the loss as he tossed four innings, giving up 10 hits, striking out one batter but walking two and hitting three.

Daphne 7, Satsuma 1

Mason Hutchins (now 3-0 on the mound) earned the victory early Saturday morning in Daphne as he tossed seven innings, striking out six batters, walking one and allowing four hits as the Trojans beat Satsuma 7-1.

"He threw a good game," said Hutchins of his son. "He was on and we came out hitting. We didn't really give them a chance to rally in the game and we played good defense."

At the plate, Mason Hutchins aided his cause with a double, a single and an RBI; Peterson had two singles; Ty Berridge had two singles and Blanchette and Maske both had two RBIs.

Satsuma 8, Daphne 5

Satsuma came back Saturday afternoon, however, to take the second contest in the twin-bill, beating the Trojans 8-5 as Noble earned the win on the mound for the Gators, going the distance in scattering six hits, striking out four and walking two. Noble was untouchable for most of the game as Daphne actually trailed 8-0 until the bottom of the seventh inning when the Trojans scored five runs to make the contest appear closer than it really was.

Maske (now 1-2 on the mound) took the loss for Daphne.

"I thought Jake threw fairly well but he was a victim of bad luck and defense as we had some errors," said Hutchins.

At the plate, Maske tried to help his cause with a single and a three-run triple.