Mackenzie Hampton
The Columbus East softball team couldn’t put hits together Friday.
While it was a cleaner game in the field defensively, the bats of the Olympians couldn’t get going. By the time they in the fifth inning, it was too little too late as East fell 7-2 to visiting Shelbyville.
It was hard for the Olympians to get a hit off Golden Bears senior pitcher Cheyenne Eads.
“We did much better putting the ball in play, but it took us a bit of time to get there,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “(Eads) is a good pitcher. She is going to generate a lot of speed, so if you square the bat up to the ball, it’s going to go.”
Shelbyville struck in the top of the first when Eads singled, and Destiney Johnson walked. Anna Shearer smacked a double to score two runs to lead 2-0.
The Golden Bears added on in the top of the third when Johnson doubled and later scored on a fielding error to increase the lead to 3-0. In the top of the fifth inning, Eads smacked a solo home run. Johnson then walked and later scored on a grounder to increase the lead to 5-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, East (7-6) finally ended Eads’ no-hit bid when Natasha Armstrong singled. After she stole second, Mackenzie Hampton singled, but then the Golden Bear fielder bobbled the ball, and it allowed Armstrong to score. Later in the inning, Savanna Sullivan hit a grounder to second, but a throwing error allowed Hampton to score to make it 5-2 after five innings.
Shelbyville put the game away for good when a homer by Addison Stieneker added two more runs in the top of the sixth.
Hermione Robinson, who was coming off a complete-game shutout against Seymour on Thursday, went six innings for the Olympians on Friday, allowing seven runs on eight hits and four strikeouts. Baleigh Fish pitched a perfect seventh in relief.
Armstrong, Hampton and Daisy Logan produced the only three in the game for East.
“Hermione pitched another great ballgame. Baleigh came in and had a nice inning,” Brummett said. “We‘ve got two games again (today against Franklin). We’re in the middle of a tough stretch against good teams… I thought we competed much better today. I really do.”
