Hinkell Handles Hornets as Drury Moves to 12-1

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Last spring, then-sophomore Connor Hinkell set a Drury program record with 17 strikeouts in a game.

 

On Wednesday, he went one better and led the Blue Devils to a 9-2 win over McCann Tech under the lights at Joe Wolfe Field.

 

Hinkell surrendered two hits and two walks with one earned run in the complete-game win as the Blue Devils improved to 12-1 this spring and completed a season sweep of the Hornets.

 

Hinkell was quick to share the credit for his sixth win against no losses this season.

 

“The fastball and the curveball, obviously, my pitch mix,” he said when asked what was working for him on the mound. “But, Julian [Feliciano]. He’s my catcher. He always calls the pitches, and I love him. He works for me. That’s how we roll.”

 

Drury coach Robert Jutras was not surprised to see HInkell dominate.

 

“He’s so consistent,” Jutras said. “So you really know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get the fastball working both sides of the plate. You’re going to work ahead with strikes. He had to have been about 85 percent, 90 percent first pitch strikes. He threw all of his off speed pitches for strikes.

 

“So he just comes at you for seven innings and forces the issue. Yeah, super consistent. To say it was his best [outing of the year]? I don’t know. He’s just the same guy every time he steps on the mound.”

 

Hinkell also was pretty good at the plate on Wednesday, going 1-for-2 with a two-run double and drawing a couple of walks in a seven-hit Drury attack.

 

Brayden Durant went 2-for-4four, and Carson Rylander drove in a pair of runs with a single late in the game.

 

Early in the game, Hinkell was on fire, retiring all nine Hornets in order – the last four on strikeouts – to let his offense give him a 4-0 lead.

 

McCann Tech finally got a runner on base when Hayden Barrett led off the fourth inning with a bunt single. He stole second and third bases and scored on an error to give McCann Tech a run on a night when offense was hard to come by.

 

Hornets coach Justin Howland said he knew what he was going to get from Hinkell and tried to prepare his team.

 

“I talked to them about it,” Howland said. “You know, Connor throws first-pitch fastballs. He does 99 percent of the time. I told them they have to be aggressive on the first pitch. We can’t look at the first-pitch fastball. The offspeed is coming.

 

“We didn’t do that. We watched the first-pitch fastball, and then sat there and looked silly on the called third strike.”

 

Drury rallied for five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to give Hinkell some breathing room.

 

Lucas Hamilton got things started with a leadoff single, and Durant and Rylander each had a hit, but the Blue Devils also took advantage of three McCann Tech errors in the inning.

 

“We just want to be super balanced,” Jutras said of the Blue Devils’ offensive approach. We want to try to hit the ball hard. We want to put the ball in play, swing at the right pitches and just force the issue – force the defense to make plays and take advantage of mistakes.

 

“I think that’s just the game. And we want to be really, really aggressive and just control what we can control offensively and be balanced and do different things and move guys. But, ultimately, we’re just trying to keep it simple and hit the ball hard and give ourselves the best shot.”

 

Lukas Rylander got the start on the mound in his second appearance of the spring coming off of elbow surgery. Howland said he was on a strict pitch count, leading to Brodie Smith’s move to the mound in the middle of Hinkell’s at-bat in the second inning.

 

Smith struck out five and allowed six runs – five unearned – in 4 and two-thirds innings of work.

 

McCann Tech (6-5) is at Lee on Monday.

 

Drury (12-1) travels to face Pioneer Valley on Thursday.