The HCC baseball team began their season Jan. 30, the last under Coach Gary Calhoun, who is set to retire at the end of the season. The pitching staff, which came in looking as the strong point of the team coming into the year, gave up eight runs in their 8-0 loss to Santa Fe CC.

  Starting pitcher Nick Nolan turned in an average performance, giving up 4 hits over the first 4 innings. After Nolan, Coach Calhoun chose to work through his bullpen, looking to see what he had in his young pitching staff for the remainder of their spring campaign. The best outing went to pitcher Marc Stewart, who gave up no runs in 3 relief innings of Nolan.

  “Coach wanted to see how we looked in a live game, so we all got a little playing time,” said reliever Robert Garcia, who only lasted one-third of an inning in his Hawks debut.

  Aside from their pitching, the Hawks looked good on defense, making several key plays during the afternoon to keep them in the game, including catcher Jesse Haney throwing out 3 base runners in his 7 innings of work.

  The Hawks played through the weekend, hosting Lake Sumter State College the following day, resulting in a 6-1 loss. However, in their third attempt for their first win on the season, the Hawks defeated Southwest Tennessee Community College 13-0 in 7 innings. The Hawks looked to get to .500 in a Monday matinee versus Daytona State College, but was postponed due to heavy rains.

  The Hawks look to get on track during the month of February, hosting 4 games in the first two weeks of February. But after that, the team hits the road in what could be the make-or-break part of the season. The team plays away from their Dale Mabry home in 10 of 11 games stretching through the first week in March. The intense road test will challenge the team early, but if successful, could provide the backbone for a championship run come May.