Lucie Asher
HOPE — The Hauser bats never got going.
By the time they started in the sixth inning, it was too late, as visiting Eastern Hancock handed the Jets a 5-2 softball loss Monday night.
“We couldn’t get a hit tonight,” Hauser coach Andy Brunner said.
Paige McDaniel went the full seven innings for the Jets (1-3), allowing five runs on nine hits with five strikeouts. Hauser managed only had six hits in the contest.
With all the rainouts that happened over the past two weeks, this was the Jets’ fourth completed game almost a month into the season.
The first run came in the top of the third inning when the Royals’ Brooklyn Willis hit a solo home run for a 1-0 lead. Hauser came back in the bottom of the inning when Lucie Asher smacked a two-out double and scored on an Izzy Brunner single to tie it at 1-1.
Eastern Hancock broke the tie in the next inning when Lilli Ringer blasted a leadoff triple and scored on an Emily Hodges single to make it 2-1. In the top of the fifth, the Royals increased the margin when Willis singled and scored on a deep single by Sammie Bolding to lead 3-1.
The Jets were in good position in the bottom of the sixth, with Asher leading off at the plate, if Hauser could hold Eastern Hancock in the top half of the inning. Cameron Spegal put an end to those potential hopes when she delivered a two-out single to plate two additional runs for a 5-1 lead.
A mini-rally started in the bottom of the sixth for the Jets when Asher singled and later scored on a Maley Jordan single. McDaniel then singled to right to put runners at the corners, but the spark quickly went out.
Asher went 2 for 3 and scored both the runs for Hauser. Jordan went 2 for 3 with an RBI, McDaniel was 1 for 3 and Izzy Brunner was 1 for 3 with an RBI.
Weather permitting, the Jets will travel to Connersville on Wednesday.
