SEYMOUR — It was a frustrating night on the diamond for the Columbus North Thursday.
The Class 4A No. 7 Bull Dogs dropped a game 3-1 on the road in Seymour, their fourth loss of the season.
“We lost our focus,” North coach Ben McDaniel said. “Not taking anything from (Seymour) coach (Jeremy) Richey, but we didn’t focus and didn’t bring it.”
Things looked to start off on the right foot for the Bull Dogs (11-4) when Grant Trinkle hit a one-out triple in the first, but he was called out because the home plate umpire said he didn’t touch first base.
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“I don’t know, my guy said he got it,” McDaniel said. “The home plate umpire is the one that called it, but he’s 90 feet away, and the guy that was 30 feet away didn’t say a word, so I don’t know.”
The Owls (8-3) then scored their only runs of the game when they took a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning. AJ Boshears doubled to left, scoring Alan Perry from first to put Seymour on the board. Perry had reached on a walk. Michael Kencht then hit a sacrifice fly to shortstop Tyler Finke in shallow center field, scoring Boshears to bring the score 2-0. Tiller Cummings tacked on another run when he singled to left, scoring Seth Maki to bring the score to 3-0.
McDaniel felt like his team’s offense would put together something in response.
“I wasn’t too worried, because I thought we’d get to their pitcher with the line up we have,” he said. “We preach to these guys that base runners win ballgames, so just get someone on base, and we’ll find a way to get them in and we couldn’t do that today.”
Jake Petrusky was the only pitcher North sent to the mound Thursday, and he gave up three runs on five hits. He did not record a strikeout, but walked only two and induced a double play in the fourth inning.
The Bull Dogs set themselves up to strike back in the top of the second when Petrusky drew a walk with one out. Parker Maddox was put in as a courtesy runner. Devon Rodgers then doubled, moving Maddox from first to third.
That’s when Perry — who struck out eight — stepped up with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and get out of the jam.
“We preach to these guys to hit line drives, hit the ball on the ground and let the defense make the plays,” McDaniel said. “We couldn’t put the ball on the ground.”
In the sixth, Clark doubled to right center to score courtesy runner Blake Huffman for the North’s only run. Huffman was running for Austin Bode, who reached on a double earlier in the inning. The Owls’ defense limited the damage when Matthew Moore threw Petrusky out at first on a long throw from short to prevent Clark from scoring.
McDaniel said he still felt confident in his team’s chances in the final inning, only down two runs.
“I told them we’ve been in a lot of different situations this year, so why not this one,” he said. “Let’s go and score two runs and pull it out because that’s what makes good teams better.”
Perry was able to shut down the Bull Dogs in the seventh inning to end the game.
McDaniel said the game came down to poor at bats that compiled throughout the game and a lack of mental focus.
“We have to have a constant approach,” he said. “This is a good ball team, and I love these guys. We’ve played great baseball and we’ve had a lot of good team wins this year. This is a team loss. We have to learn from this and have to grow from it.”
