HOLYOKE — The South Hadley baseball team played well defensively in its season opener, however, it struggled to get its bats going as the Tigers finished with four hits in a 2-0 loss to Holyoke, Monday at Mackenzie Stadium.
“I thought that we actually played a really good baseball game,” South Hadley coach Matt Foley said. “I thought the pitching, starting pitching and relief pitching was solid and I think that defensively we made nice baseball plays.”
Evan Levrault started for South Hadley and pitched well through the first four innings. Levrault threw 70 pitches and 33 strikes. He allowed one run on three hits with four strikeouts and six walks. Levrault also had two of South Hadley’s four hits.
Relief pitcher David Adams pitched the final two innings. Adams threw 34 pitches and 22. He struck out one, walked one and allowed one run on four hits.
“(We are) a little behind at the plate right now, as far as, that was our first game,” Foley said. “We haven’t seen live pitching in seven days and that kind of showed, but I thought we made adjustments at the plate and I thought we battled.”
Troy Kadlewicz and Leesandro Colon scored for Holyoke, while Nate Enrst and Branden Meyer each had one RBI.
In the seventh, South Hadley threatened with runners on first and second with no outs. Holyoke brought in closer Tyshaun Diaz, who struck out three consecutive batters to end the game.
“There were a few guys I thought looked uncomfortable today,” Foley said. “Outside of the last three guys when (Diaz) came in, he’s a pretty dominant pitcher, but I think that you’ll see us get better every game that we play at the plate.”