CAMDENTON - The St. Elizabeth Hornets played a lot of baseball in the first 24 hours of their season.
They may not have any wins to show for it, but the Hornets played in three quality, competitive games.
"It's good competition, it's a good way for us to get on the field," St. Elizabeth coach Caleb Heckemeyer said Saturday following a 2-0 loss to Camdenton and a 2-1 loss in eight innings to Blair Oaks.
St. Elizabeth had a delayed preseason. A week earlier, Heckemeyer and several of his players were finishing up the basketball season in the Class 1 Final Four at Springfield, leaving those players less than a week of practice before Friday's season-opening 3-1 loss at California.
"The rain kind of kicked us out this week, so just to get on the field and play three solid games, we just came up a little short," Heckemeyer said. "We really didn't get to see live hitting all week long."
Hits were hard to come by for St. Elizabeth. After getting just one hit against California, the Hornets had two hits against Camdenton and three against Blair Oaks.
"Hopefully this rain stays away next week and we'll get on the field, start doing some more live hitting and batting practice so we can get our bats going," Heckemeyer said. "I know our pitchers are going to keep us in it."
The starting pitching was the highlight of the opening weekend for the Hornets.
Caleb Oligschlaeger pitched six innings in a complete-game effort against Camdenton, giving up just one hit and striking out nine. Brock Lucas threw the first five innings against Blair Oaks, fanning 11 batters, while Dylan Wobbe struck out six in three innings of relief.
"Our starting pitchers, all three games, have gone at least five innings," Heckemeyer said. "That's going to be a big key to our success. If our starting pitching can go deep into games and keep runs low, we're going to be just fine."
St. Elizabeth scored its only run of the day in the bottom of the third inning against Blair Oaks. Levi Holtmeyer singled to center field, then Isaac Green drew a walk. Oligschlaeger bunted to advance the runners to second and third base, then Lucas punched a squeeze bunt down the first-base line to score Holtmeyer and tie the game at 1.
"I told them early on, once we get guys on base, we're going to start bunting," Heckemeyer said. "Caleb and Brock made two perfect bunts."
Blair Oaks scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Lane Libbert in the top of the eighth. St. Elizabeth had runners on second and third base in the bottom half of the inning, but the Falcons ended the game with a pair of strikeouts to strand them.
"We had some tough luck," Heckemeyer said.
Clayton Holtmeyer and Isaac Green also had singles for the Hornets against the Falcons.
In the opener, Camdenton scored its runs in the first and third innings. St. Elizabeth left two runners on base in both the second and fifth innings, in addition to stranding a runner on third base in the third inning.
Levi Holtmeyer and Green had back-to-back one-out singles in the fifth for the Hornets' only hits.
"Once we get a little more practice time, I think everything will start tuning up," Heckemeyer said.
St. Elizabeth (0-3) opens Show-Me Conference play Friday when it hosts Eugene for its home opener.