Hawks struggle with the zone in loss to Nikes

DONNELLSON – The strike zone is a fickle thing, and when you struggle to find it as a pitcher and struggle to stay in it as a hitter, it makes for a tough game.
That was kind of the theme of the evening Thursday night for the Central Lee Hawks as they fell 15-1 to Burlington Notre Dame at Central Lee High School.
“That’s what the message was back there - throwing strikes and hitting strikes and we didn't do a very good job of either tonight. We were swinging at pitches that were out of the zone tonight,” Head Coach Shane Weirather said after the loss.
The Hawks 1-1 (0-1 in SEI Super Conference South) were coming off a season-opening 12-9 win over Fairfield Tuesday and had senior Bo Herdrich on the mound against the Nikes.
Herdrich surrendered an open inning run off a double and a single to open the game by the Nikes. With speedy Landry Haberichter reaching on a double to left center, Maddox Diewold bunted him to third. Diewold then took off for a second after a couple pick-off throws and the throw sailed into center allowing Haberichter to score.
Herdrich would settle in for a couple innings. Central Lee would score in the bottom of the second when Hunter Edlin would come around to score on a passed ball to tie things at 1.
But it was all Notre Dame from that point on. Central Lee would have just two hits on the night as Payne Prottsman kept the Hawk hitters off balance.
Notre Dame would open up a 5-1 lead in the top of third when they plated four runs with two outs and one on. Back-to-back singles and back-to-back walks proved to be the end of the day for Herdrich who had already gone over 70 pitches. Chase Johnson came in and surrendered a walk and then an RBI single to Kyler Cameron before getting a strikeout to end the inning.

Notre Dame would pile on seven more runs in the top of the fourth and three more in the top of the 5th to set the 10-run rule after five.
Ward Fraise came on in relief of Johnson in the fourth and gave up three hits and three runs all earned. Herdrich went 2 2/3 giving up five runs all earned on four hits while walking four and striking out one. Johnson lasted an inning giving up five hits including a 3-run homer to Eli Oleson in the 4th.
“We gotta get longer with our pitchers,” Weirather said.
“This has been a theme the last two games. We fought through last night, but we didn't fight through this one. All the credit in the world to Burlington. I mean, Notre Dame, they’re great, fundamentally sound just like they always are. But we gotta do a better job throwing strikes to make them put the ball in play.”
Weirather said the Hawks are still swinging at pitches out of the zone and they should be able to shake that off as the season progresses.
“I think we're way better than that but, yeah, we'll get better. This is the second game of the season, but still, you want to play better in the second game of the season than we did right there. 
"So we've got a long way to go from what I thought this team was going to be, but I got all the confidence, and we got a lot of talent. We'll get there, but this was rough. This is a rough night for us.”
The Hawks travel to Danville Friday night and then go to Anamosa on Monday.