The Hermantown baseball team won a pair of Lake Superior Conference games last week that left a bit to be desired, Hawks coach Billy Tafs acknowledged Monday.
"You can never be upset about starting 4-0, but we have a ways to go in some different areas to get us to where we want to be come June," Tafs said on Monday morning, reflecting on consecutive wins against North Branch, Grand Rapids, Proctor and Cloquet to begin the season. "Our bats remained hot and we did pick up the conference wins, however we have a ways to go defensively if we want to reach our highest potential.
"Our pitching was decent -- considering the winter conditions and multiple guys still making their season debut -- but we still walked way too many guys to be sustainable."
The Hawks are scoring 9.5 runs per game. Senior outfielder Wyatt Carlson, who had three hits in a 10-4 win at Proctor on Tuesday, has been a tough out. Sophomore catcher River Freeman, a top college and professional prospect, clubbed a pair of home runs in a 10-6 season-opening win at nonconference North Branch.
"Our bats do remain hot," said Tafs. "We have been solid as we continue to work through some different lineups and continue to give guys chances to see who can help us towards the end of the year."
Hermantown (4-0) will face Cloquet at Mettner Field on Friday.
"Our field (Fitchner) is still not playable so we are playing our 'home' game in Cloquet, against a much-improved Jacks team," said Tafs, the unanimous Duluth Times 2023 Preseason Coach of the Year selection. "We are also trying to reschedule a game Wednesday at Wade against Denfeld, and although as of now this is not official, it’s close.
"I’d like to see a drastic improvement defensively this week. We have a couple much needed practice days to start this week that should give us an opportunity to get back to the basics, and to work through some of the early season issues we are seeing defensively."