Columbus North jumped out to a 3-1 lead against Greenwood Thursday night, but the Bull Dogs inability to get the third out in a couple of innings cost them.
The Woodmen scored once in the fourth and twice in the fifth. Both times, they had two out and nobody on base before staging a rally, and Greenwood came away with a 4-3 victory, spoiling North’s senior night.
“We just didn’t get a chance to get the last strike,” North coach Mike Bodart said. “We had two out and two strikes on them in the sixth, and (Ethan King) stuck his bat out and got a bloop double down the line, and that was enough to propel them to two runs in that inning.”
The Bull Dogs (10-8) threatened in the bottom of the seventh when Tyler Blythe led off with a walk and stole second. But Woodmen reliever Logan Connor came up with a strikeout, a fly out and another strikeout to end it.
North also had its chances in previous innings. The Bull Dogs had runners at third in the first and fourth innings, but could not get them home.
“The bottom line is, we had too many runners in scoring position and didn’t execute to get them in,” Bodart said.
After Greenwood scored in the top of the first off North starter Blake Osbourne, the Bull Dogs scored their first run in the bottom of the inning when Luke Harmon led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Connor Hensley.
North added a pair of runs in the second when Trenton McCain led off with a walk, Ely Lucas singled and Kyler Hashman followed with an RBI single. With one out, Harmon singled to load the bases, and Blythe followed with an RBI-single.
The Bull Dogs will look to put the loss behind them today when they travel across town to Columbus East for a 7 p.m. start.
“We talked about it,” Bodart said. “We moved on, and we have to be ready for East today.”
