Hawley helps lead Pirates to win with his arm and bat

SUAMICO – Bay Port senior pitcher Carson Hawley had himself a day, but it almost didn’t turn out that way. 

Pulaski loaded the bases with nobody out in the first inning, but Hawley and his Pirates’ teammates allowed only one run in the inning on their way to a 12-2, five-inning Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) victory on May 4 at Bay Port High School. 

Hawley didn’t help his cause by walking three in the inning. 

After the Red Raiders had already scored one run and had the bases loaded with no outs, Hawley struck out two of the next three batters and also forced a popout. 

“It got to a rough point with the bases loaded and nobody out – it was nerve-wracking,” Hawley said. “My curveball wasn’t working, so I threw more fastballs. I tried to throw strikes and let my defense do the work.” 

Bay Port Coach Harvey Knutson said that the first inning “was a bit scary.”

“It could have obviously been much worse,” he said. “Carson is a strikeout pitcher, so he normally throws a lot of pitches. He didn’t find the zone right away, but he battled and got out of it.”

Knutson said he and his staff were getting to the point where they almost made a first-inning pitching change. 

“We were getting close,” he said. “The way he started, it’s hard to believe he pitched a complete game. His pitch count got up there a bit, so if the game had gone more than five innings, we would have taken him out.” 

After Bay Port (15-2 overall, 10-0 FRCC) went quietly in the bottom of the first, the bats came alive in the second. 

The Pirates sent eight batters to the plate in scoring four runs, led by Eli Hart’s laser two-run homer to right center, with a stiff, 20-mph wind blowing out to right field. 

In the fourth inning, Bay Port put the game away with five more runs. 

Tommy Berg, Hawley, Cayden Heier and Ethan Orlando had RBIs in the inning. 

In all, the Pirates hammered four triples and eight extra-base hits total. 

Berg collected three hits and knocked in three runs – including two in the fifth inning to end the game – while Hart, Hawley, Orlando and Parker Broehm each had a pair of base knocks. 

Hawley walked five Red Raiders but allowed only three hits and struck out six. 

Eli Heuser, Bryce Treml and Gavin Sikorski collected Pulaski’s (8-7, 5-5) hits. 

With the victory, Bay Port equaled its win total from last season. 

“That was a nice day at the plate for everybody,” Knutson said. “We put the ball in play and had good two-strike approaches. We saw a lot of guys go opposite field instead of trying to pull the ball and hit it out of the ballpark.”