SEYMOUR — Little went right — in any facet of the game — for the Columbus East softball team Tuesday at Seymour.
The Olympians gave up 12 hits, managed just three hits of their own and totaled five errors in an 11-1, five-inning loss to the Owls.
Seymour sophomore Rachel Kaufman made the most noise on the Owls’ senor night, hitting two homers with seven RBIs while also picking up the win in the circle.
“We played like we just weren’t into the ballgame today,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “We just didn’t do much well today. We didn’t field the ball, our pitching wasn’t great and we just didn’t hit. It wasn’t just two or three people, it was 1 through 9 in the order and on the field. We just didn’t get on the bus ready to come and play.”
The Owls’ offense came to life out of the gates, collecting six hits, with everyone in the order getting an at-bat. Following singles by Tori Snook and Haley Mobley, Kaufman blasted a home run over the center field fence to put them up 3-0 with no outs.
With two out and teammate Lo Schmidt on base, Haley Westfall extended the lead to 4-0 on an RBI single.
“We know that we’re not a team that scores a bunch of runs,” Brummett said. “When we’re chasing four after the first inning, it takes away from some of what we like to do — bunt, slap and be aggressive on the bases. When you’re chasing a big number, that’s hard to do.”
Seymour (16-5) followed with four more runs in the second and three in the third to take an 11-0 lead.
East (13-10) got on the board on three straight mistakes by the Owls in the top of the fourth. The Olympians put runners on first and third base on infield errors before Haley Engelking scored on a wild pitch.
A pair of Kaufman strikeouts and a groundout put the Owls back in the batter’s box. Neither team would score the rest of the way.
Kaufman had eight strikeouts in the game and one walk with the unearned run.
“We’ve been struggling the last six or eight games putting the ball in play,” Brummett said. “At the start of the season, we were hitting .350 or .375. Now, we’re below .300 and not hitting the ball well. We’ve had good pitching and fielding, which has gotten us to our record. Today, they were hitting well, and we came up with (five) errors.”
Jordan Johnston threw all four innings for East, allowing 12 hits.
“You would like to attribute part of it to playing five freshman, but at this point, they aren’t freshman,” Brummett said. “They’re sophomores, and some of them have been playing a lot of ball. We need to pick it up. We’re too good to be playing like this.”
