Hermione Robinson
After getting off to a fast start before struggling the final six innings of Friday’s loss to Bedford North Lawrence, the Columbus East softball team started slow before picking things up late Monday against New Albany.
Unfortunately for the Olympians, by the time their bats started coming around, the Bulldogs already had built a big lead, and New Albany was able to post a 13-4 Hoosier Hills Conference win.
“It was nice to be able to come back toward the end of the ballgame and get some hits,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “Hopefully, we can build off of it. But we have to learn how to come out of the box swinging and put the ball in play hard from the very first time that the umpire puts the ball in play. As soon as we start to execute that, we’ll be a pretty good ball team, but until then, we’ll continue to play like this.”
The Bulldogs reached Olympian starter Hermione Robinson for single runs in the second and third innings before taking advantage of three East errors to score five times in the fourth. The Olympians (7-11, 1-4) got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Robinson led off with a double and advanced on a pair of groundouts.
New Albany then plated four runs in the top of the sixth to take an 11-1 lead. Needing to score in the bottom of the inning to avoid being run-ruled, East scored three times on five consecutive hits. Savanna Sullivan singled, Baleigh Fish doubled, Addy Ross singled, Robinson doubled and Daisy Logan tripled.
Robinson finished 2 for 3 to lead the Olympians’ seven-hit attack. The Bulldogs pounded out 19 hits against Robinson and Raegyn Foster, who came on in the fifth.
“Our consistency is not there,” Brummett said. “We’ll play great defense one game, and then we’ll kick it around the next. Consistently, we just can’t string a bunch of hits together, although we did in the fifth and sixth today. But it’s hit and miss, and that’s what separates good teams from great teams. You have to be consistent in everything you do. Whether you like (six-time Super Bowl-winning coach) Bill Belichick or not, he was right — ‘Everybody has a job to do, and everybody just has to do their job.’”
Brummett shook up the defensive alignment a little, moving catcher Addy Ross to first, first baseman Fish to third, third baseman Mackenzie Hampton to catcher, left fielder Lola Watkins to second and second baseman Natasha Armstrong to right.
“We’re trying to figure out what’s going to work,” Brummett said. “We got off to a string (of wins) early and had pretty good plays early on and had pretty good games early on. But we’re trying to find that consistency, so we’re moving the lineup around a little bit, insert some players to see if we can get that consistency.”
