Beatty baseball has played five games since April 4, winning two of them. The Hornets played one game with Mineral County at home and lost 21-10 on April 4. The team then hosted Spring Mountain and swept them in a doubleheader on April 7, winning 15-1 and 12-10.
In their latest game on April 11, Beatty hosted Tonopah and was swept. The only league game was against Spring Mountain.
Hornets coach Mark Henderson said the pitching was off for the Mineral County game.
“We used five pitchers and we had problems finding the strike zone,” he said. “The new pitching rule that controls how many innings a pitcher can pitch is hurting us.”
In that game, Beatty (5-3 overall, 2-0 Class 1A Central) got nine hits. Hugo Mendoza led the team with three hits and three RBIs. Henderson said the errors were high and 15 of the runs were unearned.
In the Spring Mountain (2-11, 0-2) doubleheader, the Hornets turned things around. “Spring Mountain suffered from not having any pitching,” Henderson said. “We used Gonzalez and he pitched well.”
Mendoza went 2-4 with a double and two RBIs and three stolen bases. Damien Reynoso went 2-4 and had four RBIs and Gonzalez helped himself, going 2-3 and two RBIs. Daniel Castillo had four stolen bases and went 2-4.
“This was one of the best games of the year,” Henderson said. “Reynoso is a sophomore and he is starting to hit more. He is coming around and I think he gets it now. He knows what to do. Many of these kids come to us, having never played baseball. We also have one girl on the team, Joselyn Hernandez. She is starting to hit too. She is putting the ball into play more and more. She had two RBIs that game.”
The second game was closer but good pitching by Jacob Henry at the end saved the game.
“In the Tonopah games we were out-hit and out-pitched,” Hernandez said. “We were better in the second game and might have won that game or at least made it closer but our sprinklers came on and we couldn’t turn them off and so the game was called in the seventh. We have improved a lot. The pitching is getting better. You can teach fielding and hitting but pitching is something that takes time to develop. Our kids have no baseball experience.”
In the second game, Fabian Perez went 3-4, had a double, a single, an RBI and scored. Mendoza had a double and single and four RBIs. Hernandez went 2-3.
Henderson said the games against Tonopah (5-5-1) and Mineral County were non-league games. Beatty will play Tonopah for a league game on April 28.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com