Hiwassee Dam – With such a young team, Hiwassee Dam baseball coach Tommy Strickland is looking for improvement from one game to the next.
That can be hard to measure in baseball, but Strickland thought he saw it in the Eagles’ first week of action. Hiwassee Dam split a doubleheader with Cherokee on March 15, winning 2-1 and losing 6-1, then lost to Towns County, Ga., 4-0 on Thursday.
“Against Cherokee, we just didn’t hit well,” Strickland said. “That’s about all there is to it. Towns, their pitching is pretty good. We hit the ball, but we hit it to people, which is progress.
“I told the kids if we hit the ball, but we hit into an out, that’s OK, you hit the ball. Eventually they’re going to fall, we have to be patient and just keep swinging the bat.”
Strickland is still trying to figure out who can do what on his team, experimenting with kids at multiple positions as well as different pitchers. He likes where his team is pitching wise, and said they have a lot of speed on the base paths.
Hiwassee Dam had a better plan at the plate against Towns (4-5 overall) after nerves got the better of them against the Braves. It just didn’t result in runs.
“We were a little timid at the plate, apprehensive about swinging so we watched
a lot of third strikes,” Strickland said about the Cherokee doubleheader. “Against Towns, that didn’t happen. They were swinging the bat, they were putting the ball in play.”
Hiwassee Dam hosted Polk County, Tenn., on Monday, then traveled to Swain County on Tuesday. The results of both games were not available until after this week’s edition of the Cherokee Scout went to press. The Eagles host the Maroon Devils on Friday.