NEW HOPE — Three times on Monday night, New Hope High School senior catcher Hunter Carr found himself behind in the count with runners on base.
Gordo pitcher Jesse Lang never had a chance.
Carr ripped two two-run doubles and an RBi single, all with two strikes on him, driving in five runs and leading the Trojans to a 9-1 win over the Green Wave on Monday night at New Hope’s Trojan Field.
Like many hitters, Carr said he has a different approach at the plate after a second strike.
“I choke up, scoot up in the box and try to get an HBP or hit one in the gap,” Carr explained, and New Hope coach Lee Boyd said that is by design.
“He chokes up on the barrel a lot, gives him a lot more bat control,” Boyd said. “To be honest, it’s taken some time to get that through his head. He’s so big and so strong, if he just gets the barrel there the ball will go. And I think he’s bought into that.”
Taking some pressure off also helped, the coach said.
“He kind of started slow,” Boyd said. “He was hitting cleanup in the beginning of the year. Hunter’s a great hitter, and I kind of felt like moving him down the lineup would take some pressure off of him.
“We dropped him in the seven hole for a few ballgames and he really started squaring up, and we bumped him back to four the last three or four games and he’s swung it really well.
Boyd gives a lot of credit to hitting coach Jerry Garrison, and not just for his work with Carr.
“We’re just playing hard,” said Carr, whose Trojans won their eighth consecutive game. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I’m proud of, and I tell you the difference-maker for us has been our approach at the plate.
“Our hitting coach, Jerry Garrison, has done a wonderful job with that. Guys have just bought in, put balls in play, limited our strikeout numbers, and we’ve got some big hits with people on base.”
Pitching and defense count, too, and the Trojans were outstanding in both areas against the Green Wave. They played error-free ball, including a spectacular play from third baseman Sam Malone, who made a diving stop and a perfect throw to record the first out in the sixth.
As for the pitching, senior Caden Perrigin made his first varsity start a memorable one, allowing four hits and one run over 5⅔ innings, striking out eight and walking three.
But Perrigin was a different pitcher after the third walk.
“About the third inning, I felt like he found his breaking pitch, and when he found his breaking pitch I think everything else worked off of that,” Boyd said.
Everything was working after that for Perrigin, who struck out the next five batters — striking out the side in the fourth — and retired nine of the next 10.
“I just really focused on throwing strikes,” Perrigin said. “I wasn’t going for strikeouts, I was going for putting it in play and trusting my defense behind me. The infield and outfield did great.”
After the 9-of-10 streak, he surrendered a two-out single to Gordo’s Brady Jones and came out of the game.
“My pitch count got up,” Perrigin said, checking with Carr to confirm he threw 88 pitches during the game.
In came freshman Austin Minichino to get the final four outs, three of them by strikeout.
Perrigin also contributed to the offense, leading off the bottom of the second with a line-drive home run to left field.
“I tend to hit the ball really hard a lot, and it normally doesn’t leave, so off the bat I just assumed it wasn’t going to go,” he said. “But by the time I got to first, I realized it fell over.”
Carr finished 3 for 4, missing a chance to end the game via the mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth with the bases loaded and, again, a 1-2 count.
“That’s the first time he got out in about a week, so we’ll let him slide with that one,” Boyd said of Carr, who went 7 for 7 during a doubleheader against Starkville last week and ran his streak to 10 consecutive hits until his last at-bat on Monday night.
Five of New Hope’s runs were scored by batters who walked or were hit by a pitch, and Malone, Adam Adair and Hayden Dodson each scored twice. Dodson twice reached base with perfect bunts down the third-base line, and Gates Gerhart drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly in the second and getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth. The other Trojans run scored on a wild pitch during the four-run second inning.
New Hope (9-1) has not lost since a 6-5 setback at East Webster in the second game of the season. Despite the impressive winning streak, in which the Trojans have scored in double digits six times, Carr does not believe they have peaked.
“I don’t think we have,” he said. “I don’t think people have seen our full potential. We haven’t got balls in play for our defense to show, but once our defense shows, they’re going to know we’re here.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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