Baseball team wins league opener

The Outlaws baseball team opened league play at home with a 3-1 victory over Elmira on Tuesday, April 1.

Sisters' three runs all came in the fourth inning. Nate Jackson took the plate with two out and Chase Klient on base. Jackson hit the ball off the pitcher's foot, and the ball angled past the first basemen. Jackson got safely to first and scored Klient for Sisters' first run of the contest. Taylor Davenport followed with an RBI single. Max Stovall's double into left field scored Davenport for the Outlaws' third and final run of the game.

Tanner Hodges pitched for the Outlaws. Hodges scattered four hits and recorded six strike outs.

Coach Steve Hodges told The Nugget that Tanners' pitching kept the Outlaws in the game.

"It was important for us to get off to a good start with the league opener," said Hodges. "It was a confidence builder for us to take care of business in the sixth and seventh innings. We still need a stronger offense and need to put the ball in play more and score more runs. But we did what we needed to do today to win."

Two days later Sisters lost 4-3 at Marist. Jarred Hasskamp was on the mound for the Outlaws and recorded six strike outs in the game.

"Jarred had good location, and his breaking balls were working," said Hodges. "It was his best performance of the season."

At the close of the third inning, Marist held a 2-0 lead over the Outlaws. Sisters battled back and evened the score at 2-2 in the fourth. Marist scored another two runs in the fifth to regain the lead at 4-2.

The Outlaws had an opportunity to come back and win in the seventh but just didn't get the hits they needed. The Outlaws had runners on second and third with no outs but couldn't get their offense rolling.

Sisters finished the game with five hits and four errors.

Hasskamp and Jackson both had bunt singles in the contest. Hodges, Tyler Miller and Davenport also recorded singles for the Outlaws.

Errors from the usually solid defense hurt the Outlaws.

"We can't afford the uncharacteristic kinds of errors we had today," said Hodges. "We've got to clean that up. We gave Marist two runs early, and in a close game plays like that make the difference."

The Outlaws are currently 1-1 in league and 3-7 overall. Sisters hosts Pleasant Hill on Tuesday, April 8 and travel to Crook County on Wednesday, April 9 for a non-league game.