Penn Hills baseball works to up batting average with new approach at plate

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, April 9, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Attempting to surge up the standings won’t be something the Penn Hills baseball team will be able to do by standing pat. Haunted by a lack of offensive production, the Indians have had a hard time getting out of the season’s starting blocks.

Stuck with a .194 batting average as a team, Penn Hills needs to find a quick fix to its woes. Indians coach Rodney Stubbs said they plan to take a different approach at the plate.

“We want to have a two-strike approach every time they are at the plate,” Stubbs said. “We don’t want to go down looking. We want to go down swinging.”

Not being able to find contact at the plate has led to a much different start than Stubbs would have preferred to see the Indians make. Penn Hills struggled to score during its first four Section 1-5A games.

The Indians (0-4, 0-4) opened the season with a 5-3 loss to Franklin Regional. During Penn Hills’ three section games since then, Penn Hills has only scored two combined runs during three defeats.

That has led to the Indians spending more time working on batting.

“The boys spent two hours in the batting cage at practice (last Wednesday),” Stubbs said. “They are working on trying to see the ball well.”

Penn Hills has had other hiccups. The Indians lost one game in large part due to nine errors, but Stubbs said the team has that under control.

What Penn Hills has done is set a goal to raise its level on offense.

“Our goal is to bring our batting average as close to .300 as possible,” Stubbs said. “We want to get close to that average so everyone on the team has to be responsible for that average.”

Junior catcher Connor Lehman leads Penn Hills with a .333 batting average and has driven in a run. Sean Walker (four hits), Kenny Boyle (three) and Philmore Austin (three) have also provided punch at the plate.

Austin also leads the team in extra-base hits with two. Boyle, Walker and Owen Williams have also contributed a double.

Stubbs senses the urgency of the next few weeks of games. With the WPIAL’s new scheduling of baseball, which sees section games against the same opponent played on consecutive days, there isn’t a lot of room to breathe.

“The real challenge is you aren’t sure who you are going to face on the mound,” Stubbs said. “With us playing all section games, we need to be ready to play every night.”

Tags: Penn Hills