Spirits were high among the Newark baseball team after an 11-0 win at Hickley-Big Rock in six innings on Monday afternoon.
The Norsemen (11-9, 6-4 LTC) played sharp defense and put pressure on the Royals' defense all game. Norsemen coach J.R. Veliz was happy with how his team played.
“We are a small-ball team,” Veliz said. “We’re not going to hit home runs. We put the ball in play and see what happens. When we get on, we run and move guys over. Then, you pitch and play defense. That is what we did today.”
In contrast, H-BR (4-12 overall, 4-9 Little Ten Conference) committed six errors and had two balks.
“We just need people to start stepping up,” Royals coach Brandon Jackson said. “We’ve been talking a lot about commitment. To give up 11 runs on six errors is not the way we coach this team. It is all mental. We make an error and get down on ourselves. We need to do a better job of picking ourselves up and making the next play.”
The defense for the Royals had four of its six errors coming on throwing errors. The Royals also were muted offensively, only getting one runner to second base in the game. They could only muster three hits and they struck out seven times against Newark starter Kevin Klock.
Veliz spoke glowingly about his pitcher, praising how he managed to hit his spots and be effective, despite not having his usual velocity. Klock threw all six innings, striking out seven, while hitting two batters and scattering three hits.
“I felt all right,” Klock said. “I most certainly didn’t have my best stuff, but I went out there and got the job done, I guess. I just try to throw strikes and get groundouts and pop outs. The defense was great today. It gives me so much confidence when they play that well. At that point, I just let them hit the ball.”