MTZ baseball loses two on the road last week

By BLAKE FAITH
Staff Writer

The Mt. Zion baseball team lost two road non-conference games against Metamora and Chatham-Glenwood last week.

Against Chatham-Glenwood, Braves’ pitcher Robert Chausse threw a first-pitch that Chatham-Glenwood’s Nolan McMasters clobbered over the centerfield wall to give the Titans a 1-0 lead.

The Titans took a 3-0 lead after two innings. The Braves’ offense started to rattle in the top of the third when Evan Hamrick got on base after a Titans’ error. Sam Driscoll stepped to the plate and hit a ball to the left-field gap. Ethan Hamrick got on with a two-out walk that led to the bases being loaded. The Braves sent out Gavin McInerny who struck out and ended the first scoring chance for the Braves.

The Titans added five runs in three innings to create an 8-0 lead going into the seventh inning. Chausse and Chase McInerny were struck out to start the seventh inning. Evan Hamrick got on with a walk and then Driscoll hit a one-RBI single to a gap in right-field to give the Braves a run.

“I thought we were competitive,” Head coach JD Arnold. “We made a few mistakes and against a team like that you really can’t make very many mistakes. I don’t think even if we played a mistake free game, I still think they’re gonna beat us. They swung the bats really well today. We struggled a little bit with their pitcher but their pitches had a good arm and that’s going to happen.”

The Braves fell to Metamora 10-4. The Braves fall to 6-4 on the season and will face Bloomington and Mattoon this week.

“We just got to be better with runners in scoring position,” Coach Arnold said. “That was our bugaboo against Metamora. As you can see a little bit here today, we had an opportunity to get a couple of runs in and we just didn’t get the job done. So we gotta get better with runners in scoring position and I don’t think that we played poorly. I just think we ran into a couple of good teams.”