Prep Baseball: Nighthawks’ pitching staff takes another hit

The Del Norte High baseball team was expecting to have three experienced starters this season. But all of a sudden the Nighthawks find themselves down to possibly just one.

Junior left-hander Grant Hylton has been out injured and the rotation took another hit Tuesday when senior Adam Connors exited in the third inning of Del Norte’s 9-1 loss to Bullard in the 6A Division of the Lions Classic.

“He felt some discomfort in his arm so we took him out,” Nighthawks coach Rielly Embrey said.

The plan before the start of the year was to have Hylton, Connors and Parker Lappin getting the majority of the innings. But it looks like that will have to change with the injury bug hitting the Nighthawks.

“That area was possibly going to be the strength and experience of our team,” Embrey said. “But, hey, that just means there is an opportunity for somebody else to step up.”

Del Norte will need to pick it up in other areas, too. The Nighthawks made three errors and had just four hits in the loss to the Knights, which advanced to 2-0 in pool play of the 6A Division.

Bullard broke the game open with three runs in the fourth and three more in the sixth. All six of those runs came with two outs. The highlight was a three-run homer by Bullard’s Greg Weaver in the sixth, making it 9-1.

Del Norte had a chance to take control of the game early, but grounded into a double play with two on and no out in the first and then hit into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs in the second inning. The Nighthawks got their one run in the frame on a bases-loaded walk to Bryan Kimbrell.

“Sometimes the most important part of the game is in the first few innings,” Embrey said. “It is not always the sixth and seventh innings. We had their guy on the ropes early and we let him off the hook and he just got stronger as the game went on.”

Knights starter Josh Mettler went the distance to pick up the win. Bullard will advance to the semifinals Thursday with a win in its final pool-play game Wednesday against El Camino.

Del Norte (4-6) will conclude pool play against Point Loma Wednesday at Del Norte at 3 p.m.