Hawks can’t catch the Shorewood Thunderbirds, falling 1-3

By Joshua Morrison, Hawkeye staff|April 15, 2015

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Gallery|7 Photos
The team getting together

On Tuesday afternoon the Hawks varsity baseball team faced off against the now undefeated Shorewood Thunderbirds. Despite a slowly creeping comeback by the Hawks, it was too little too late as the bottom of seventh hit.

To start off the game, the Thunderbirds came out firing on offense. Huge back to back plays put Shorewood up early. What started as a huge triple led to two more big hits immediately after. In a matter of seconds, the Thunderbirds jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead.

Despite still being early in the game, chances for the Hawks to score quickly began to slip away. A struggle to consistently get runners on base really hurt the Hawks’ offense. Inning after inning, the Hawks were unable to respond and cut down on Shorewood’s huge lead.

Finally, in the bottom of the sixth inning, senior Jason Shevenko was able to bat in fellow senior Jaden Yackley to put up a single run on the board. The Hawks still had time to try and catch up from their two point deficit.

Two outs later and the Hawks were suddenly faced with only a single inning to finally close the gap. Shorewood managed to step up and forcefully end any momentum the Hawks had built up. In their final chance at bat, the Hawks barely managed to get anyone on base, ending all hopes of a late comeback.

Despite their struggles on the offensive side, the Hawks were still able to hold Shorewood during most of the game. For six innings, the Thunderbirds were held scoreless. Although their first inning at bat put a huge lead on the board, Shorewood struggled to continue their initial success.

This shutdown effort by the Hawks stayed true to their defensive goals coming into the game.

“Defensively, we wanted to have a perfect game. Aside from that rough first inning, we made up for it in the end,” Yackley said.

With this game behind them, the Hawks are ready to move on. They are ready to come back on Wednesday with a new and improved game plan.

“We need to fix our defensive mistakes. If we had just had a perfect first inning, we would’ve won the game,” Yackley said.

The Hawks will look to avenge their loss with another game against Shorewood on Wednesday, the 15th. They will face off against the Thunderbirds at 4 pm. at Meridian Park Fields.