Flint Hill Baseball Opens Season With Mercy-Rule Win

The baseball team kicked off the 2011 season Monday with a dominant 19-0 win over Randolph-Macon Academy.

The Huskies commanded from the start, with Jared Knoll striking out three in a row to close the first half of the inning quickly. Knoll, who has in the fall, threw four strikeouts in two innings — giving up no hits — before being pulled from the game in the third inning.

Knoll also put the Huskies on the scoreboard first, notching three of his five RBI with a home run in his first at-bat of his senior season.

But Knoll's three-run homer would be just the beginning. The Huskies went on to score 10 runs in the first inning, including a two-run line drive single from second baseman James Abrahamsen and a two-RBI single from Knoll.

After another three-up, three-down half inning for Randolph-Macon's offense, the Huskies started right where they left off in the first with a solo shot from first baseman Michael Palma. Bolstered in part by shortstop David Belt's two-run double, the Huskies ended the second inning up 15-0.

With a large lead, Coach Tom Verbanic decided to bring in the bench for the rest of the game. Filling in on pitching were Zack Stottlemeyer, Rick Armstrong and Nick Bazzarone, while Luke Belt (1 RBI), Armstrong (2 RBI) and Stottlemeyer (1 RBI) scored the last of the Huskies' 19 runs.

The game ended in the middle of the fifth inning because of the mercy rule.

In his first year as baseball coach for Flint Hill, Verbanic was not sure what to expect from Randolph-Macon, but he does know the Huskies won't be as dominate over every team this season.

"I know we play some very good teams in our conference," he said. "It's not going to be like this. But we got to go out and play, that's the good thing."

He said it's tough to really weed out the strengths and weaknesses in a game where your team overwhelms the other, but not impossible.

"In a game like this, we get to work on some things at the plate, and we worked on our base-running skills without stealing bases and on getting our pitchers to pitch first-pitch strikes. So there are things we can get from any game," Verbanic said.

He's also had a few weeks of practice with his new team, which won the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference last year, to assess their skills.

He's happy with the direction his pitching staff is going and has noticed an improvement defensively.

"We're getting there offensively. We have a long ways to go offensively, but we're getting there," Verbanic said.

Next up for Flint Hill: John Paul the Great Catholic High School at home noon Saturday.