ST. HELENA — Tight, nervous and a bit out of sync were the Middletown Mustangs in their season-opening 7-4 varsity baseball loss to the St. Helena Saints on Tuesday afternoon in St. Helena.
“There were not a lot of physical errors, but we had a lot of mental errors on the basepaths,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “We were very nervous, very tight, not relaxed at all. We had first-game jitters.”
St. Helena jumped on losing pitcher Devin Nordin for two runs in the bottom of the first inning, the first run coming on a steal of home with the Saints” clean-up hitter standing at the plate.
“He (Nordin) was pretty upset about it and I was trying to calm him down,” Tucker said.
Nordin wasn”t any happier a few pitches later when the clean-up hitter drilled a high 0-2 fastball for a home run.
“He left it up and the guy smashed it,” Tucker said. “We never really recovered from that (2-0 deficit).”
St. Helena had a 3-0 lead before Middletown (0-1) broke through with two runs in the top of the third. The Saints got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning and pushed across three more in the fourth for a 7-2 advantage. The Mustangs chipped away with single runs in the fifth and seventh innings.
While the Mustangs would have preferred a win in their opener, Tucker said there were some bright spots for a young squad that has only two seniors.
“Trey Davis had a couple of clutch hits,” Tucker said. “And (Dylan) Galusha pitched well.”
Davis, a senior third baseman, went 2-for-3 and drove in three of the Mustangs” runs. Galusha, only a sophomore, worked two innings in relief of Nordin.
“I need him to eat up some innings this season,” Tucker said.
Travis Taylor, Middle-town”s only other senior, went 1-for-3 and scored three times.
Middletown hosts the Clear Lake Cardinals on Friday at 3:30 p.m.
