Ronnie Battle can’t help but smile these days.
After all, he has plenty to be happy about.
His Kinston Post 43 American Legion baseball team is off to a blistering-hot start, with it being carried by his biggest concern heading into the season — the offense.
Post 43, which won three in a row and four of its first five games, has scored 59 runs. And perhaps the biggest surprise is the team’s numbers only grew with each passing game — all played on consecutive nights.
“I would have imagined it’d take three-fourths of the season to score 59 runs,” Battle said. “I’m getting some guys who are producing.”
Kinston scored eight runs in a season-opening 8-1 win over Duplin-Sampson Post 127 last Wednesday then fell at Jacksonville Post 265 16-6 the next night. But since the loss Post 43 has had seven, 15 and 23 players touch home plate in its three-game win streak.
Not bad for a team Battle said didn’t “have the hitters this year” the day before the season began.
“Maybe they’re a little bit better than I thought they were. They are hitting and playing with confidence, and they are having fun,” he said.
“It’s a joy to see them in that dugout, cheering and pulling for one another.”
Post 43 opened Area I East play on Sunday in what was easily its biggest offensive outburst of the young season. Kinston defeated visiting Elizabeth City Post 84 23-11 in seven innings, a day after knocking off Jones County Post 154 15-5, also in seven innings.
Kinston put up 23 runs without two of its starters — outfielder Grant Tyndall and first baseman Garrett Holland, who were attending a school function — and did so mainly with reserves.
Sunday was a microcosm of how everyone, from those who play the most to the ones who come off the bench, is getting it done.
“Those guys (the reserves), I just make the lineup out and they just fit right in like a well-oiled machine,” Battle said.
Battle also credits a dugout with less pressure to perform as a reason his team has hit the ball so well.
Dylan Puchalski, a senior at North Lenoir, is batting .500 (10-for-20) after hitting .324 for the Hawks in his final year with the team.
Matt Hinson (5-for-10), Marc Hamilton (5-for-9) and Wesley Melvin (6-for-15) are three who are having success after not swinging the bats at all since legion season ended last summer.
“They’ve started to relax with me,” Battle said. “There didn’t seem to be as much pressure playing for the legion team knowing that we have plenty of players, doing a little rotating here and there.”
Especially Puchalski.
“He’s relaxed some. That’s why he’s producing,” Battle added. “That may be the case for quite a few of the other ones.”
The mercy-rule defeat at Jacksonville hit home with Kinston, and it’s bounced back in a big way.
The team is off due to exams and graduation until traveling to Trenton on Sunday to play Jones County. And Battle is expecting his team to pick up right where it’s left off.
“Losing a ballgame is not the biggest thing in the world, but it’s the way we lost that ballgame. It was a close ballgame at one time,” Battle said. “They decided they weren’t going to lose like that again.”
Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.