MERCER \u2014 The Mustangs couldn\u2019t find the strike zone Thursday.<\/p>\n
Five Mercer pitchers combined to walk 11 and hit a pair of batters in a 5-2 setback to visiting Sharpsville in Region 1 action at Brandy Springs Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur weakness is on the mound,\u201d Mustang mentor Art Amos said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be walking batters, because it always ends badly and that\u2019s what happened here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
After starter Justin Amos issued three walks in the first three innings, eight of the 11 free passes and both of the hit batters came off the finger tips of Mercer\u2019s bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them somebody needs to step up on the mound and throw strikes,\u201d Art Amos said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the arms like we\u2019ve had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Devils (1-0, 2-1) took full advantage of the Mustangs\u2019 inability to find the strike zone in the later stages of Thursday\u2019s contest, scoring all five runs against Mercer\u2019s relief pitching. The visitors plated single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings, while pushing a pair of tallies across the dish in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
The Mustangs (1-2, 3-2) took advantage of free passes in the first inning when Justin and Jayden Amos accepted walks from Sharpsville starter Kaden Wygant before scoring on Cole Fisher\u2019s bloop single to shallow right-center field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our scrimmages and our games so far, we\u2019ve scored early in the first inning with one or two runs,\u201d Art Amos said. \u201cThat\u2019s been working well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of Fisher\u2019s first inning base knock, Mercer managed a double from Scout McFeeley and singles from Justin Amos and Adam Dupuis, while striking out six times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI re-watched the Greenville (loss) and we\u2019re looking at a lot of strikes,\u201d Art Amos said. \u201cWe need to be swinging. Halfway through (Thursday), it happened again, because we were looking at a lot of strikes. I\u2019d like to see (more aggressiveness) out of them before we get into a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amos is hoping his players take the lessons learned in March and early April and apply them as the season wears on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told them there\u2019s always highs and lows to a season,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping this is our low point and by the time we reach the middle and end of the season, we\u2019ll be at our high (point).\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Seven players \u2014 five Mustangs and two Blue Devils \u2014 were hit by pitches. \u2026 Kaden Wygant and Travis Wilding combined to scatter two runs on four hits, while striking out six and walking three for Sharpsville. \u2026 Wilding led the Blue Devils with a pair of singles, while Lincoln Breit (double) and Journey Cornelius (single) accounted for the only other hits for the victors. \u2026 First pitch was pushed back an hour to get the field playable due to heavy rains the day before. \u2026 Sharpsville had two errors, while Mercer had one. \u2026 The Blue Devils stranded 12 base runners (nine in scoring position) and the Mustangs left eight on (six in scoring position).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MERCER \u2014 The Mustangs couldn\u2019t find the strike zone Thursday. Five Mercer pitchers combined to walk 11 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,5,2316,2323,3313,2314,2317,2313,2340,2325,2330,2333,2334,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2307,2320,2343,2321,185,2324,811,2512,2311,2312],"class_list":{"0":"post-669249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-baseball-competitions","12":"tag-baseball-events","13":"tag-baseball-field","14":"tag-baseball-finals","15":"tag-baseball-games","16":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","17":"tag-baseball-positions","18":"tag-baseball-teams","19":"tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","20":"tag-grass-field-surfaces","21":"tag-lawn-games","22":"tag-major-league-baseball","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","25":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","26":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","27":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","28":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","29":"tag-mlb","30":"tag-mlb-playoffs","31":"tag-mlb-postseason","32":"tag-outdoor-sports","33":"tag-pitcher","34":"tag-positions-team-sports","35":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-sports-events","38":"tag-starting-pitcher","39":"tag-strike-zone","40":"tag-team-sports","41":"tag-turf-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}