Bats silenced as New Hartford handed their first loss

Team buries themselves with errors; offense struggles

After a 3-0 start to the season, the New Hartford Post baseball team felt the agony of defeat for the first time Sunday night. New Hartford was shutout at home 8-0 by Adrean Post in a game that was an overall struggle for the young New Hartford team.

In what can only be described as a lackluster performance, New Hartford dug themselves in a hole early. The first inning was riddled with a variety of errors for New Hartford. Wild pitches, past balls, and botched routine plays in both the infield and the outfield led to 4 first inning runs for Adrean. The team came out flat and looked uneasy, showing their youth against an experienced Adrean team. The hole that New Hartford dug themselves in proved to be too much to overcome.
  

At the plate, the New Hartford hitters have certainly seen better days. The team managed only 3 hits and struck out eleven times. New Hartford was stymied by Adrean's young starter Austin Smith. The harder throwing righty had control issues throughout the game, but whenever New Hartford started to get runners on base Smith and Adrean's defense squashed any hopes of a New Hartford rally.

The score remained 4-0 until the seventh inning when young New Hartford pitcher Steve Pardi came in for relief. Pardi was hit hard by Adrean, giving up a walk and 3 hits in his limited time on the mound. Tory King replaced Pardi and recorded the final two outs of the seventh, but not before the score was 8-0 in favor of Adrean.

The lone bright spot for New Hartford was starting pitcher Tyler Porter. The lefty watched his defense crumble around him in the first inning, and still managed to stay focused, allowing his team to stay in the game. Porter threw 109 pitches through 6 1/3 innings, walked 6, struck out 6, and allowed only 3 hits, a quality start by any standard. Porter's off speed pitches had Adrean hitters baffled for most of the game.

It was expected that at some point this season the youth of New Hartford would be exposed, and this was the game it showed up in. The good news for New Hartford is that the season, much like their lineup, is still young, and they have plenty of time to grow and mesh together as a team. New Hartford at 3-1 needs to use this game as a learning experience and move forward.

Up next for New Hartford is a visit to Holland Patent Monday evening. New Hartford looks to get back on track against an undefeated Roberts Post team. The first pitch will be thrown at 5:30 P.M. Veteran righty Billy Cougan will be on the mound.