No Joy in Douglasville - Knights gain valuable experience but no wins at USSSA NIT

Cal Hughes was strong on the mound, in the field and had 2
doubles at the plate.

The Knights continued their pattern of saving their best performance for Sunday but they were not able to generate enough offense to overcome the Buckhead Bucks in an 8-2 loss that knocked Marietta out of the Global Sports Qualifier NIT at Hunter Park in Douglasville. The Knights offense struggled throughout the tournament and Saturday's games were marked with maddening defensive lapses that the prevented the boys from settling down and playing good baseball in losses to the Armuchee Tomahawks and Georgia Marlins. On the bright side, the Knights got very good pitching in all 3 games and Coach Rob feels like he learned alot about handling his staff in future tournaments. Cal Hughes, Austin Hansell, JD Rinehimer and Will Nelson were all strong on the mound and proved they can give their team a chance to win.

Cal Hughes had a huge tournament for the Knights. Cal struck out 4 in 3 innings against Armuchee on Saturday and came back to throw 2 scoreless innings against the Bucks on Sunday. He threw a whopping 67% strikes for the weekend. Cal also made several great catches in CF and doubled twice.

Will Nelson once again provided the Defensive Play of the Game 1 against the Tomahawks. Armuchee had a runner on second and the batter drove a single into RF. Will charged the line drive, scooped and fired a throw that took one hop into Austin's mitt at home allowing Austin to lay down the tag just as the runner from second slid in for the exciting out. In addition to Cal's two doubles, JD Rinehimer added a 2B and a run scored in the game.



Hunter Williamson singled, stole 2 bases and
scored against the Buckhead Bucks

The Defensive Play of Game 2 was also an exciting play at the plate against the Georgia Marlins. With runners on the corners, Will stepped off the rubber to catch the runner on 1B breaking early. As he started to throw over, the runner on 3B broke for home so Will threw to Cal at the plate. Cal ran the runner back to 3B but threw high. Hunter Williamson went up the ladder to snag the ball that looked to be headed to LF and gave chase throwing back to Cal who put the tag on the runner sliding into home. Austin Hansell had 2 RBI's for the Knights against the Marlins.

On Sunday, the Knights regained their composure and defensive highlights became the norm instead of the exception against the Buckhead Bucks. Third baseman Austin Hansell made a great backhanded catch against the fence on a looping foul ball. Catcher Will Nelson picked up a wild pitch at the fence and made a diving tag at the plate to exchange several cleats to the forearm for an important out. Cal caught back to back flyouts in CF including a low, sinking line drive that he caught on a sprint. With all that competition The Defensive Play of the Game goes to JD Rinehimer because his play was a great heads up play as well as an athletic play and because you just don't see FC 8u in the scorebook very often. With a runner on first, the Bucks batter hit a high, shallow flyball into no man's land. Mason (SS), Isaac(2B) and JD(CF) all converged on the ball but it dropped in between them. JD scooped the ball on a sprint and recognized that the runner on 1st had been forced to hold and that there was no one left to cover 2B. JD kept running with his trademark grin and tagged 2B just ahead of the runner for the unconventional out.



George Krivsky caught 2 flyballs in LF
and singled for the Knights

JD also scored the Knights first run against the Bucks. After
legging out an 18" infield single JD stole 2nd and 3rd and scored on a deep sacrifice fly to CF from Mason Doyle. Hunter Williamson singled to CF and also stole 2nd and 3rd allowing him to score on a fielder's choice by JD in the 3rd. Gil Hastings, George Krivsky and Isaac Zefo each added hits for the Knights.
Although it was a frustrating weekend for Marietta, Coach Rob told the boys that the season is a process and this weekend was a step along the way. The team learned alot about its pitchers and especially after Garrett's return from Spring Break should be well stocked for tournament runs to come. Also on Sunday, the Knights got back to the great defense they'd shown against the Cobb Coyotes Wednesday night. Finally, as the heart of the order struggled offensively, the bottom of the order came up with several big hits. Soon all these guys will be hitting at the same time and the Knights will have a formidable offense. Next up for Marietta is a NABL-West matchup across the county against the Shaw Park Thunder.



JD Rinehimer pitched well and had a
2B, 2 stolen bases, 3 runs scored
and an RBI on the weekend.

Will Nelson had another strong outing
on the mound and provided great defense
from several positions through the weekend