Putnam County’s baseball team has had a rough start to the season, entering this week at 2-8 overall.
A majority of the War Eagles’ mistakes have been self-inflicted, according to head coach Mike Phiel. He knows his team is talented but hopes his players can learn from their miscues.
“We hadn’t put a complete game together. There have been times we looked good at the plate, hit the ball well, worked the count, and drew walks. When we do that, we don’t pitch well,” Phiel said. “Sometimes we’ve pitched well but haven’t hit well. There’s also been times we’ve pitched well but played bad defense. We hadn’t put all three phases together yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Putnam’s pitching staff has struggled by giving up free bases. Through the team’s opening 10 games, its pitchers have walked 65 batters, compared to 62 strikeouts. Those walks have led to runs. The War Eagles are looking for consistency on the mound but haven’t found it quite yet.
Senior Hunter Holder, as well as sophomores Branan Griffin and Wyatt Johnston, have been their most reliable arms. Together the trio have struck out 40 batters and walked only 25 through 10 games.
Defensively, Putnam is also struggling with errors, averaging 2.8 per contest this year. The War Eagles’ opponents are taking advantage of free bases and scoring easy runs off those errors and walks.
Phiel said it’s a matter of his players settling in and fixing those mistakes.
“It takes a while for each team to find their identity. We’ve got three seniors, a couple of juniors, but the rest are sophomores and one freshman,” Phiel said. “We’ve still got a lot of young guys playing in key roles.”
Phiel is hoping to get sophomore Gates Lanzarone back from an injury at the end of the month. He could provide a much-needed spark to a War Eagles that has struggled at the plate this year.
“We hope to get him back towards the end of March, and we’ve struggled without him. We don’t have much depth,” Phiel said. “We’ve got guys that are playing out of position, and somehow the ball always seems to find them when we’re out of position. That’s led to some of the errors. It all goes hand in hand.”
Putnam is averaging only 5.3 runs per game and having trouble finding consistency in the batter’s box.
Senior BJ Ruff and sophomore Jackson Dodd are leading Putnam in several different offensive categories, but it isn’t enough. The War Eagles need to find more of a groove offensively, but they have the tools to do so.
Phiel still believes his team can find a rhythm if just a few things can be cleaned up. He said he hopes his guys can start to play better baseball once region play starts.
He also acknowledged the non-region part of the schedule was made tough so his team could learn fast.
“We’ve played some really good teams. Teams that don’t beat themselves,” Phiel pointed out. “When you make mistakes against good teams, good teams take advantage and that’s exactly what has happened.”