Sports
Ballard's Blast Ignites Cougars for 1st Win of Season
Kaufman strong on the mound as Chatham upends Whippany Park.
Under first-year head coach Bryan Hedgecock, the Chatham High School baseball team notched its first victory of the season, beating host Whippany Park 11-4 Wednesday in light rain throughout the game with temperatures hovering around 46 degrees.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Total Chatham (1-1)
1 2 0 1 3 1 3 11
Whippany Park (0-2)
IN SHORT
Lead-off batter senior Brian Ballard cracked a home run to deep center field to start the game. The Cougars kept the momentum going behind the pitching of Brendon Kaufman and Matt Reader who came on in the sixth inning to close out the game.
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COUGARS OF THE GAME
Brendon Kaufman—5 2/3 innings pitched, three runs allowed on seven hits, with four strikeouts.
Brian Ballard—His first inning solo HR got the Cougars going.
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OTHER KEY PERFORMANCES
Matt Reader came in to pitch as darkness began to fall, and contributions from Gregg Bazzani and Gray Halliburton helped the Cougars gain a convincing first win for Hedgecock.
THEY SAID IT
"This was an important game for us, and I'm pleased with how the whole team played together and overcame the elements to earn this win. Since I became head coach we've been working on figuring out what we can do as a team, how we can get on the same page and make this a team effort, and today we did just that."—Head Coach Bryan Hedgecock
Up Next—Pequannock on Friday at Pequannock at 4 p.m.
