CHARLOTTESVILLE — With defending sectional and regional winner Scecina coming to town, Eastern Hancock knew its work would be cut out for it Monday.
The Royals were coming off a pair of victories last week and they were hoping the contest would give their team, made up primarily of underclassmen, an idea of how far they have come this season.
Unfortunately for the Royals, the Crusaders had too many big innings, including a six-run sixth, in an 11-1 loss.
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“We played a good team,” Eastern Hancock coach Chad Coughenour said. “They went to the semistate last year, won our sectional and won the regional and they have a lot of guys back.”
It didn’t help to get down 5-0 early. The Royals gave up two runs each in the first and second and one more run in the third inning.
“We talk about it every day about getting better every play,” Coughenour added. “We try to compete as much as we can. They scored some runs early and we kept competing and kept competing and kept competing and kept the game close. We just made a couple mistakes.”
Eastern Hancock held ground in the fourth and fifth, but were unable to get any closer than 5-1.
Opportunities were abundant in the middle innings, but the Royals managed just one in the fifth.
Freshman leadoff hitter Wyatt Sutton singled to right field with one out in the third. With two out, Trey Brown was hit by pitch. Sutton stole third base and Andy Locker followed with a walk, but all three were left stranded.
In the fourth inning, the Royals had the bases loaded with one out. Cameron Wise opened with a walk. He stole second and third base and was later joined on the base paths by Landon Kintner and Dylan Bates, who also drew walks against Scecina starter Jameson Welborn.
Crusaders’ reliever Luke Soultz entered the game to face Sutton, who flied out to left field. Wise tried to tag and score on the play and he was thrown out at home to end the inning.
The Royals were able to get one across in the fifth. Brown reached on a one-out error. With two away, Keegan Bowman got on with an infield single. At third base, Brown scored on a wild pitch. Wise added another two-out hit, but the Royals couldn’t get any more runners across.
“We hit the ball, but we hit it right at people,” senior second baseman Ryan Burris said. “This helps us know where we are in comparison with the top teams. I thought we played well.”
Eastern Hancock had four hits and four stolen bases. Burris had one of each. The Royals left nine on base.
“Every inning but the last inning, we had people on base,” Coughenour added.
“That’s part of being a young team, learning to do the things we need to do, like hitting behind runners. (Scecina) did a phenomenal job of that. With two strikes they were putting the ball in play. They were hitting the ball behind people. They were doing what they are supposed to do. That’s what a good team does. We need to learn that a little bit better and just get better at it.”
With the loss, Eastern Hancock dropped to 2-6. Scecina improved to 4-4.
The Royals are back in action with a 5 p.m. contest today at Tri.
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Scecina 11, Eastern Hancock 1
S (4-4);221;006;—;11;13;2
EH (2-6);000;010;—;1;4;2
WP: Jameson Welborn. LP: Andy Locker.
2B: Eli Phillips, Wyatt Causemaker, Spencer Martinelle, Owen Begley (S). RBI: Mac Ayres 2, Owen Begley 2, Aidan Ray 2, James Welborn, Liam Wright, Eli Phillips (S).
Notable: Ryan Burris 1-for-3, 1 SB; Cameron Wise 1-for-2, 2 SB, Keegan Bowman 1-for-3, Wyatt Sutton 1-for-4, 1 SB (EH)
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