<p>For the Daily Journal</p><p>HOPE</p><p>The way first-year Edinburgh baseball coach Dennis Smith figures, his Lancers won’t see much better pitching than what they’ve seen the first four games of this season.</p><p>Class A No. 8 Hauser hurled its second consecutive shutout of Edinburgh on Thursday. The Jets followed Wednesday’s season-opening 11-0 win at Edinburgh with a 10-0, five-inning Mid-Hoosier Conference triumph in their home opener.</p><p>Hauser’s Trey Johnson fired a three-hitter and struck out 10 on Thursday. That followed Aaron Mee’s one-hitter with 11 strikeouts on Wednesday.</p><p>“Mee and Johnson are elite pitchers in 1A baseball,” Smith said. “We’ve seen some elite pitching. Even our first two games, Brown County, we saw a great pitcher, and Trinity, we saw a great pitcher. We’re probably not going to see any better pitching in our 1A schedule than what we’ve seen.”</p><p>The best scoring chance for the Lancers (0-4, 0-2) came in the top of the first. Coltan Henderson reached on an error, and Ethan Armel singled with one out. But Johnson came up with back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.</p><p>The Jets (2-0, 2-0) got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first off Edinburgh starter Henderson. Hauser then put up four runs in the second and added a run in the third to make it 7-0. After Armel came on for the Lancers in the fourth, the Jets scored a run in that inning and ended the game with two runs in the fifth.</p><p>“I think our pitching and our defense seems to be ready to go,” Hauser coach Nate Long said. “Our hitting still needs a little bit of work, but I thought our at bats were better. I thought our guys were a little more relaxed tonight.”</p><p>Edinburgh’s lone hit after the first was a one-out single by Ian Buchanan in the fourth.</p><p>“I thought our approach was better at the plate,” Smith said. “We were a little bit more aggressive. I think the more at bats we get, the better we’ll get. We just have to keep seeing pitches and keep getting at bats. I think we’re going in the right direction. Like I just told them, ‘Just stay the course, and things will get better.’”</p>