Columbus North had a slow start at the plate in Wednesday’s Conference Indiana baseball game against Bloomington South, and it might have something to do with the lack of focus that coach Ben McDaniel said he and the rest of his coaching staff witnessed during the pregame.
The Bull Dogs didn’t get on base until Bryce Lollar and Homare Takauchi walked in the third inning, and their first hit in the 3-1 loss didn’t come until Adam Chapman’s RBI-single in the fourth. North ended with four hits to Bloomington South’s five.
“We weren’t focused. We didn’t bring the right approach,” McDaniel said. “We didn’t play very good team baseball, did a couple selfish things as individuals. We kind of had the feeling as a coaching staff pregame that we weren’t focused, kind of like two weeks ago at Seymour. Unfortunately, the same thing happened with Seymour.”
It was a quick first inning with both pitchers in North’s Jakob Meyer and Bloomington South’s Wil Stockman retiring the first three batters. Stockman also retired the next three Bull Dogs in the bottom of second after South’s back-to-back walks in the top of the inning helped set up the one-run lead.
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A sacrifice bunt with no outs allowed the Panthers (7-13, 1-4) put a runner on third, and a sacrifice fly scored a run.
Neither team scored again until catcher North catcher Austin Bode was hit by a pitch to get on base in the fourth. Chapman, who went 2 for 3, helped Bode turn that into a run when his single allowed Bode to reach home plate and tie the game at 1-1.
The Bull Dogs (14-6, 2-3) had an opportunity to take the lead with runners on third and second base with two out in the fifth. Bode stepped to the plate and made contact on the first pitch that flew right into the first baseman’s hands to prevent the score.
Bloomington South regained the lead for good by scoring two more runs in the top of the seventh. Stockman protected the 3-1 lead by ending the game retiring the side in the bottom of the seventh.
Stockman finished with eight strikeouts, and Meyer had three. Both pitchers pitched the entire game.
North hopes to follow its season trend of bouncing back with a win after each of its five previous losses. However, McDaniel said the Bull Dogs have to play better later on if North sees the Panthers again in the sectional.
“We can’t play like this in sectional,” McDaniel said. “That’s a conference opponent, and we’ve wanted that win … If I’m them, I’m licking my chops wanting to see us again in sectional because we didn’t play very good baseball tonight.”
