April 9, 2015

Hun Baseball Stumbles in Loss to Lawrenceville, But McQuade Still Upbeat About Team’s Prospects

Everything clicked for the Hun School baseball team in its season opener at Academy of New Church (Pa.).

Hun rolled to a 19-1 victory in the March 30 contest, pounding out 15 hits in the process. Starting pitcher Jason Applegate looked sharp, striking out five and giving up a hit in two innings of shutout work.

Three days later against visiting Lawrenceville, things didn’t go so well for the Raiders as they fell 10-0 in six innings. Hun got only two hits and starting pitcher Robby Huselid never got into a groove despite getting five strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings of work.

“We made some good swings, not as many as we could have,” lamented Hun head coach Bill McQuade.

“We put some pressure on them early, I thought. We couldn’t score that one inning (in the second when Applegate was thrown out at home plate). If we had gotten one or two that inning, it would have picked us up. We had guys on there. We needed that one big hit or even a little flair, just something.”

Junior hurler Huselid showed flashes but wasn’t as good as he can be. “Huse didn’t get in a rhythm; he never got in the flow of the game,” said McQuade, who brought in junior George Revock to relieve Huselid  with two out in the top of the fourth inning.

“He had some great things with location and then it looked like he would lose it in between. Now in defense of him, we had all of this time off, working out in the gym. Our pitchers didn’t log many innings on our trip to Florida because we were trying to find out who could throw for us.”

McQuade acknowledged that it wasn’t a great effort all around for his squad.

“Those are all excuses, the bottom line is that we didn’t execute as well as we could have,” said McQuade. “Lawrenceville put the bat on the ball clearly better than we did. We hit into three double plays.”

Hun’s lack of execution perplexed McQuade, considering that the team has looked sharp so far this spring.

“We played well against ANC and in Florida we played against teams of Lawrenceville’s caliber and did really well there,” said McQuade.

In the wake of the setback, it is back to the drawing board for the Raiders.

“When you have four days off you get a few more practices outdoors, which we need to get them going,” said McQuade.

“Now a couple of heads are hanging, they are down a little bit. We need a couple of good practices where everything is upbeat again.”

True to character, the ebullient McQuade, now in his 45th season at the helm of the program, is upbeat about his Hun’s prospects.

“We’ll get better, we have got to get our pitchers more innings, without a doubt,” said McQuade, whose team plays at the Hill School (Pa.) on April 8 before hosting Peddie on April 10 and Steinert on April 11.

“I know that our big three has to get more. George hasn’t been on the mound much, he can be that way, effectively wild, but you have got to be able to locate the ball. Ap (Applegate) is doing a real good job. Huse needs to be a little more consistent.”