One word was the story for the Columbus East baseball team — errors.
The Olympians committed three errors in the field, which led to five unearned runs for a 6-3 loss against Jennings County in the sixth-place game of the Hoosier Hills Conference baseball tournament.
“You can’t give a team like that free bases,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “We gave them a couple free ones, and they had some hits here and there in certain situations where they got those timely hits, and we didn’t.”
JD Rotert took the tough decision on the mound for the Olympians (7-16). He went five innings and gave up six runs (one earned) on five hits with seven strikeouts.
Hayden Low got the win on the mound for the Panthers (8-11). He went seven innings and gave up three runs (one earned) on four hits and five strikeouts.
“Hayden threw the baseball really well. He was extremely efficient and got through seven innings,” Jennings coach BJ Sigler said. “He’s had some really good outings this year, but as far as putting seven innings together, I thought he was excellent on the mound tonight. He was able to locate a couple pitches for strikes, which is always a big plus.”
Carter Hudson finished 2 for 3 with a triple for the Panthers. Zane Weinhorst was 2 for 3, and Kyle Byram went 1 for 3.
It also didn’t help East that it didn’t get any consistent hitting. The first-through-sixth batters in the lineup went 0 for 16, while the 7-through-9 batters went 4 for 9.
Aiden Bumbalough went 2 for 3 with a double for the Olympians. Paxton Thompson was 1 for 3 with a double, and Marcus Wilkinson was 1 for 3.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Gratz said. “We have another week left here to get ready for sectional. We want to be playing our best baseball, and we weren’t playing our best tonight.”
