Hooligans comeback dreams melts away

LAURINBURG — In the smoldering heat, the Highland Hooligans watched their hope melt away as the Shallotte Shallywags entered Legion Park and escaped with a 10-9 victory.

It was one of those nights for the Hooligans when nothing could go right. Whether it was the pitcher being substituted early, players being ejected, umpires making controversial calls, or the offense failing to produce, the Hooligans just couldn’t get out of their own way.

“In the first four innings, we had a lot of mistakes,” head coach J.R. Polak stated. “Whether it was errors or walks. That comes back to bite you when you give a good team like the Shallywags that many extra opportunities; they’re going to take advantage of it.”

The score was 3-2 with the Hooligans trailing by just one run in the early going, but things soon took a turn for the worse. After the Shallywags scored seven more runs, the Hooligans struggled and had multiple strikeouts, which led to frustration in the dugout and the ejection of Alfredo Jiménez.

“I let my emotions get the worst of me; sometimes you say things you shouldn’t say, you live and you learn,” Jiménez stated.

However, the Hooligans fought their way back in typical Laurinburg spirit. The Hooligans would score two runs to increase the score to 10-6 at the bottom of the seventh inning after previously trailing 10-4. The Hooligans were only three runs behind, 10-7, after another run at the bottom of the eighth.

Brady Hendrix and Nate Simon opened the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back walks, putting the Hooligans in a solid position to tie or take the lead. With Nate Simon on second base and Brady Hendrix on first base, Cody Thomas would come to bat and knock a single to deep left field, allowing Simon and Hendrix to score two runs, bringing the score to 10-9 with no outs.

“I honestly thought I hit a home run,” Thomas said. “Their pitcher provoked me in the prior innings, so I kept that in the back of my mind when I stepped up to bat.”

The Hooligans had the Shallywags on their heels at this point. After being down by more than five runs and fans exiting the park as if there was no chance, the Hooligans set out to pull off the improbable upset.

But tragedy struck after the early momentum the Hooligans gained. It would go for nothing as the Shallywags rallied together and forced three straight outs, sealing the win.

“The momentum we created at the end of the game shows us that we have the talent,” Jiménez said. “We started slow, but the ability to come back after being punched in the mouth and being resilient. We will learn from this and use this as motivation.”

Though the comeback was inspirational, players and coaches know that games like this should not have to come down to near comebacks if they play their style of baseball.

“We know we’re a great team; at any given point, we can come back. Once we start coming together more as a team, we are going to be unbeatable,” Thomas stated.

When asked how to get better as a team, players and coaches sounded off.

“Execute better; we can’t have too many mistakes. If we play our game of baseball, we are going to win games,” Polak claimed.

“Come firing out of the gate; if we struggle at the start, just pick it up. We can’t start laid back; our mentality has to be to go no matter what inning we are in,” Thomas said.

The Hooligans will have to put this loss behind them as they travel to take on the Oak Island Loggerheads on Tuesday, June 24, at 6 p.m.