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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
In baseball, there is such a thing as peaking too early and peaking at the right time.

For Hampton head baseball coach Nicholas Perkins, he is hoping that what he has seen over the last 12 games or so is indicative that his Bulldogs are starting to hit their stride at the right time.

Going into their contest with University High on Monday evening, the ‘Dogs entered the game winners of 9 of their last 12 thanks to good hitting and quality innings from their pitching staff.

In their recent game against Happy Valley, the Bulldogs earned a mercy-rule win 12-2 taking advantage of a nine-run top of the first inning.

Caleb Royston continued to show growth on the mound as he pitched a complete six-inning game allowing only three hits and two runs while striking out a dozen Warrior batters to run his record to 3-3 on the season.

Josh Owens continues to swing a hot stick for the ‘Dogs as in the game against Happy Valley Owens collected four hits in four trips to the dish with a double.

Hampton has other hitters as well that compliments each other as Parker Henry and Conor Jones added 2-for-4 efforts in the game against Happy Valley.

Perkins and his Bulldogs traveled to Washburn and picked up another shutout win, 5-0, over the Pirates as three Bulldog pitchers toed the rubber to pick up yet another Hampton victory.

Colin Morgan pitched three innings and struck out two followed by Brody Hicks who worked three innings with five strikeouts, Josh Whitson closed out the game pitching the final inning recording two of the three outs by strikeouts.

And as good a hitter as Owens has been for the Bulldogs, he collected his first-ever career home run in the contest and is batting 1.000 since being moved to the designated hitter batting 11-for-11 through the Washburn game.

Henry added two hits in the Washburn game with a single and a double while Royston was 1-for-3 and picked up two RBIs.

The Bulldogs were finally slowed down a bit in their last game against University High as the Bucs handed the ‘Dogs an 11-0 setback.

Brody Hicks made his second career start in the game on the pitching mound and battled for four and two-thirds of an inning. It was Hicks first Varsity start.

Owens and McKinley Kuhn picked up base hits for Hampton as the Bulldog’s overall record stands at 11-9 and 3-4 in the conference.

Perkins knows he has a special group of players that have the capability of making a lot of noise in post-season play.

However, right now the fired-up coach has only one thing in mind and that is settling a little score with the Bucs as they traveled to Johnson City Tuesday night looking to even the series.