For The Tribune
Jeffersonville’s Drew Campbell led off the top of the first inning with a long home run, down the right field and onto the tennis courts Wednesday at American Legion Field.
Campbell, a senior, continued to swing a hot bat as he homered again in the second inning, hit a two-run double in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fourth for a total of 7 RBI to lead the Red Devils to a 15-1 win in the opening round of the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament.
The game was called at the end of five innings because of the 10-run rule.
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Owls coach Jeremy Richey said he knew his team would be in for a tough battle as the Red Devils topped the Owls 10-1 earlier in the season.
“(Campbell) can play, and they’re a really good team,” he said. “They’re 13-3 and in the top-10 for a reason. The disappointing part is the mental side of it. For whatever reason, we can’t get over the hump with these guys. We’re going to have to cross that bridge at some point. We might draw them the first round of the sectional.
“They swung the bats and they scored early. I thought we responded well, but when they came back and scored again in the second inning, our kids did not have the same demeanor with us coming to the plate in the second inning, and I think it went downhill from there.
“We’re not as bad as we played against them. For whatever reason, we have not played well against them.”
The Red Devils bunched four hits together to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the first.
With one out in the bottom of the first, Satoshi Hirose walked and he scored on a hit by Luis Munoz.
Jorge Vega hit a hard ground ball down the third base line that scooted past the third baseman for a hit, but a fielder’s choice and a fly out prevented the Owls from scoring any more runs.
Campbell hit a 3-run homer in the second inning to make it a 6-1 game.
The Red Devils had a pair of two-out hits in the third to increase their lead to 10-1.
Hirose doubled and Munoz walked in the third, but they were left stranded when the next two batters hit into a fielder’s choice and struck out.
The Owls went out in order in the fourth and fifth innings.
Hirose had a double and a walk, Munoz had a single and a walk, Vega had a single and was on base on a fielder’s choice and Seth Maki reached base on a fielder’s choice in the first inning. Nobody else reached base safely.
“We made pretty contact tonight, but we didn’t get hits, and we didn’t put things together,” Richey said. “We’ll take some positives from this. We got some young guys on the mound a little bit.”
Sophomore Tiller Cummings started the third inning on the mound, and junior Zach Carpenter relieved later in the inning.
The four Seymour pitchers combined to allow 12 hits, strike out four and walk five.
“We’ve got a quick turnaround, so we’re going to have to get over this one real quick,” Richey said. “We’ll be better because, and I hate to say this, we don’t have to play Jeffersonville.”
The Owls (9-7) will host Columbus East today. East lost to Jennings County 5-3 in eight innings on Wednesday.