Lola Watkins
If the Columbus East softball team wants to put up more wins on the board over the few weeks, they have to start getting some hits.
The Olympians managed only four hits to the 14 that visiting Avon had for a 14-3 loss in five innings.
“You’ve got to get more hits than that. (Wednesday) night when we played Floyd Central, we really did a nice job and were competitive through the whole game. We just didn’t have the same energy and same effort as (Wednesday) night,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “It’s hard to come out and someone punches you in the mouth for five runs in the first inning, but you’ve got to fight back. You have no choice. You’ve got to come out swinging.”
The Orioles (6-15) opened with five runs before the Olympians (6-14) could respond. They did so in the bottom of the first when Baleigh Fish blasted a two-out solo home run to make it 5-1.
Avon got the run back in the top of the second Lylah DeArmond hit an RBI-single to make it 6-1. East once again cut into the deficit in the bottom of the second. Taylor Wessel and Ariel Darnell were both hit by pitched, and Lilly Tindell hit a shallow single to load the bases. Back at the top of the order, Lola Watkins smacked a double to the right-center fence to plate two runs to make it 6-3, but the Olympians couldn’t rally any further.
The bats cooled off after that as East only had one hit over the final three innings. The Orioles put the game away by adding two more runs in the fourth and six in the fifth.
Watkins finished 2 for 3 with two doubles for the Olympians. Fish was 1 for 3 with a home run, and Tindell added a single for the four East hits. Starting pitcher Jacque Boroughs took the loss in the circle.
If East wants to take the next step and make some noise in the state, they have to learn to win games against the top teams in the state.
“There are some bright spots, but we are not here to just be competitive on one night and lose the next night. We want to be competitive every night. We want to go from good to great,” Brummett said. “If we are beating the teams that we should beat, that’s good, but teams like Avon and Floyd, that tells you when your program is going to great, and tonight, we showed we weren’t quite there.”
