Mavs fall short against Halls

April 14, 2021 by Collin Riggs

Anderson County hosted Halls in baseball Tuesday, April 6, and, after losing the lead early in the game, struggled to regain it before ultimately losing 6-2.

Halls took the lead early in the game with two runs in the first inning that Anderson County ultimately answered with a run of its own early on.

But the Mavericks struggled heavily to score more runs to even the score, even as Halls pulled further away with another RBI in the third and three more in the fourth.

Ultimately, Anderson County scored only one more run in the fifth inning, putting the game at it’s final score with neither team scoring again in the last two innings.

Anderson County’s Luke Lowery hit two home runs for the night, leading the team on hits as well as RBI. Lowery also finished with a walk and three quality-at-bats, while Eli Varner and Hudson Hartgrove also finished with a walk.

Connor Martin led the team on the mound, pitching for seven innings to finish the day with 25 first-pitch strikes and five strikeouts, as well as a WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) of 1.29.

Head Coach Cory Stooksbury said that the team has to “keep building and making progress.”

“We’ve dropped quite a few here recently, and I honestly didn’t think we’d lose this many games all year,” he said.

“We haven’t been able to put everything together on a given night. We do one thing great one night, but can’t do this other thing, then the next night we might flip that and we do the other thing great, but fall behind on the first thing.”

Stooksbury said he does think the team is doing better, though, and taking steps to improve.

“I thought Wednesday at Halls, we played cleaner than we have been, even though we lost,” he said. “The errors were just at unfortunate times. We didn’t get [the errors] at times where nobody was on base, we got them at times where people were in scoring position. We played cleaner, though.

“Unfortunately, in high school baseball, scoring three runs doesn’t win many games. We’re getting hits, and we’re getting guys on base. We’re just leaving too many on. We get them on base, but fail to get them home.

“Luke Lowery hit two home runs Tuesday night, and that was our entire offense that night,” Stooksbury said. “Jacob Brock we moved to the lead-off spot, and he’s done a great job, too. He finds a way to get on base.”

Stooksbury also commended the pitchers from both Tuesday and Wednesday night.

“Connor Martin threw it well on Tuesday, and Hayden Hartgrove and Connor Tackett both threw it well the next night,” he said. “We’re doing good things, but just not enough.”

Anderson County is at 4-11 for the season, but, despite that discouraging number, Stooksbury said he still has hope for the team.

“I still believe in them,” he said. “I tell them that every day. It’s just a matter of time until it clicks, and when it does, I think we’ll be really dangerous. We’re focusing on stringing stuff together and trying to peak before May. I truly think once we get things clicking and we’re playing to our potential, I think we can compete with anyone. We just have to get some stuff ironed out.”