Losing is a disease, but the Knighthawks get healthy in a hurry in Cooperstown
But for the Holmes County Knighthawks 12-and-under elite level traveling team, losing back-to-back games on opening day of the 104-team Cooperstown Dreams Park and American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament near the hallowed grounds of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in east-central New York was nothing more than a learning experience.
“We learned to be a little more patient at the plate,” explained Knighthawks head coach Jamie Horn after watching Erik Hanna and Brandon DeHass bang out four of the six hits his team managed to collect during a 6-3 tournament-opening loss to the South Florida Orphans on Sunday, June 5. “We were swinging early at first and second pitches and not seeing anything good to hit. These are good pitchers here that are a notch above what we normally see.”
Knighthawks pitchers are usually a notch above the competition as well – entering Cooperstown with a combined ERA of just 1.75, striking out 78 batters over 95 innings pitched and walking only 27 – but even they needed a quick lesson on opening day.
And they got it in Sunday’s night cap, as the Tennessee RBI Rangers raked Knighthawks pitching all over the yard, banging out seven home runs and run-ruling the 12-year-olds from Holmes County for the first time in four years, 15-3 in the sixth inning.
“It was a good learning experience,” said Horn. “Our pitchers learned that you can’t just throw pitches right down the middle. If you leave pitches over the middle of the plate, belt-high, it’s going to be home run derby.”
Luckily for Horn the Knighthawks learn very quickly and by Monday afternoon the all-star contingent from West Holmes, East Holmes and Southeast local school districts used the lessons from Sunday to turn the tide completely in their favor as Connor Roach started on the mound, keeping the ball low and away against Benders (FL), while the offense went to work, pounding out seven home runs en route to a 15-3 six-inning victory.
“We were more patient and kids started going with pitches and being more productive,” said Horn, after watching extra hitter Bryan Yoder lead the offensive onslaught, homering in each of his three at bats – off of three different Benders (FL) pitchers – and collecting four RBI. “We started going back to what we were doing that got us here.”
DeHass and Hanna continued to do what they do at the plate against Benders (FL) as they both hit solo home runs in the fifth, Hanna added a two-run shot in the sixth, and Mitch Massaro connected for the Knighthawks seventh long ball in the sixth inning with another solo job.
Massaro’s dinger proved to be mere foreshadowing of what was to come in the Knighthawks’ Monday night game as they took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning against the Mountain Brook Green Sox of Alabama before completely exploding at the plate, batting through the entire order without making a single out, getting a grand slam home run from Markus Schlabach and bringing the game to an abrupt end on a walk-off grand slam by Massaro, which made the score 17-3.
“Other coaches have been telling us, that in our lineup there’s no one you can walk. You don’t get a break,” explained Horn, after his team helped drive the Newnan Maniacs of Georgia a little more crazy with a 16-1 four-inning thrashing on Tuesday, June 7, as Hanna went 2-for-2 with two more long balls and four RBI; DeHass, Yoder, Roach and Trenton Bridenthal all went deep; and Turner Horn broke out of an 0-for-8 slump by going 4-for-4.
Entering their final game in pool play late Tuesday afternoon and needing a win to secure a top-tier seeding for the elimination round beginning Wednesday, June 8 – lower seeds could have to win as many as five games on Wednesday to advance – the Knighthawks pitching and offense worked together in perfect harmony to orchestrate a 10-0 win over the Bakersfield (CA) Web Gems, giving the Knighthawks a 4-2 record and making them the number 25 seed.
While Roach, Massaro and Schlabach set the tone on the mound by combining for a two-hit shutout, the offense continued to hum, as seven of the Knighthawks runs came courtesy of the long ball – Yoder hit a three-run bomb, Hanna and Massaro each added two-run blasts – and DeHass and Horn went a combined 7-for-7 at the plate, with Chris Kline adding two big hits as well.
“Our pitchers are black-to-black on the plate now and our hitters are being patient,” said Horn, whose team – as of press time for this issue of the Holmes County Journal – was scheduled to play the winner of the game between 40th-seeded Scottsdale (AZ) and the number-61-seeded Texas Twisters on Wednesday afternoon, hoping to advance to play eighth-seeded Riverside (CA) Wednesday night and move on to the Sweet 16 on Thursday, June 9. “I’m very happy. That team that beat us 6-3 (South Florida Orphans), they’re a four seed and the kids believe now that they just threw that one away. They believe now that they belong here.”
“Losing is a disease…as contagious as bubonic plague,” added the hypnotist in The Natural. “But curable.”
And the Knighthawks proved that to be true, curing themselves in a hurry by simply learning from their losing ways, passing the disease on to the opposition as they continue their legendary march in the land of baseball legends.
Published: June 7, 2011
