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Haymarket rebounds, wins 3-out-of-4 to reach .500
What a difference a week makes.If turnarounds are possible less than two weeks after the first pitch of the season, then the Senators are figuring out how to do it.
The Haymarket Senators of the wooden bat Valley Baseball League won three of their last four games leading into Monday of this week. That pulled their record back up to .500 at 3-3.
It came after they opened the season with back-to-back losses due largely to fielding mistakes and hitters not hitting.
Six players shared the title for the team MVP of Week 1. Greg Hopkins led the way by being an absolute tyrant at the plate. He smacked 10 hits in 20 at-bats, including a first-inning home run off Ali Simpson in a 6-5 winning effort against Harrisonburg that took 11 innings to complete.
After 26 at-bats, he was tied for second place in the league with a .462 batting average, putting him equal with Jared Simon of Front Royal and only 0.012 points behinds Rob Kral of Waynesboro.
Hopkins has scored five runs with 12 hits this season, earning five RBIs too, pushing his slugging percentage up to .692.
When Hopkins has gone to the plate, something has happened. Hopkins has been hit by more pitches (2) than he's been walked whiled he's gone down to Ks on four occasions. Once he hit into a double play.
Teammate Mike Demma came in not far behind with a .400 performance by cranking out eight hits in 20 at-bats. Overall, he's hitting .370 in 27 at-bats, placing him 13th in the league.
But if there was an award given not just for great hitting but for coming through in the clutch as well, then .333 hitter Evan Noel would have that one wrapped up.
He delivered Haymarket's first win of the season with an RBI single in the bottom of the 11th against Harrisonburg on June 11 that drove in second-baseman Tom La Stella.
Three pitchers rounded out the MVP selection process for Haymarket.
Returner Grant Sasser (9.0 IP, 2.00 ERA) has not earned a decision yet, but he's averaging just under a strike out per inning pitched. Opposing batters have hit .219 on him this season while half of the runs that have scored on Sasser (4) have been unearned.
Not far behind Sasser is DDE_LINK1Mark Kuzma DDE_LINK1, whose 3.00 ERA in six innings pitched may not be the most impressive number, but his opponents' batting average of .182 is sure to raise some eyebrows.
Kuzma averages exactly one strikeout per inning and, like Sasser, is still searching for his first decision of the season.
At first glance, pitcher Bob Van Woert may not seem like the likeliest candidate for MVP given his lack of statistics. Yet, in the three innings he has pitched, Van Woert's struck out five batters and allowed no hits.
Because the Senators have to make up games that were rained out at the start of the season, Haymarket finds itself on the diamond every day through the Fourth of July weekend. The Senators are home next Thursday, June 18, against North Division rival Fauquier with first pitch set for 7:30 p.m.
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