The Seymour baseball team struggled offensively at home against Lowell, Michigan, and New Albany on Saturday.
Against Lowell in their opening game, the Owls had only three hits, struck out seven times, walked three times, and left six runners on base in a 7-1 loss.
Later against New Albany the Owls had only two hits, drew one walk, had four strike outs, stranded five runners and lost 5-1.
Owls coach Jeremy Richey said he didn’t expect the lack of offense after his team hit the ball well in its first two games of the season.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“We couldn’t find hits at any point during the day,” he said. “We’ve got a lineup that we thought was going to be a really good offensive team and the last three games we have been pretty bad.”
The Owls had only three hits in a 1-0 loss at Columbus North on Tuesday.
“I’m not sure if the game up at Columbus North took something out of us, but we were not good today,” Richey said. “We didn’t see today (pitching wise) what we did up there at Columbus. Today it was all about our attitude and our approach.
“We decided we were going to take pitches that were strikes and that’s just not our game. Unfortunately we never found the bats today. It was a very frustrating day.”
Lowell scored two runs on three hits in the first inning to lead all the way in Saturday’s first game.
Seth Maki led off the bottom of the second inning for the Owls by reaching second base safely on a throwing error by the shortstop. He moved to third on Tyler Bloom’s single, and Maki scored when the centerfield bobbled the ball.
Luis Munoz had a double in the fourth inning and Bloom had a single on the sixth for the Owls’ only other hits.
The Owls had the bases loaded and one out in the fourth but couldn’t score.
Three Seymour pitchers allowed the Red Arrows 10 hits, walked four and struck out four.
Alan Perry led off the bottom of the first against New Albany by reaching second base on a two-base throwing error. He advanced to third on a balk, and Perry scored when Maki grounded out to the first baseman.
The Bulldogs tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning and it stayed that way until the sixth when New Albany bunched three hits to score twice, then added two runs in the seventh on Ryan Robison’s home run over the fence in left field.
Maki led off the fourth with a single but was thrown out trying to steal second, and in the sixth he singled and stole second with one out, but couldn’t advance any further.
New Albany had 12 hits, including two doubles and the home run.
“We’re giving up a bunch, and that’s not a good recipe for success,” Richey said. “They’re getting a bunch of hits and we’re getting none. Lowell was pretty good, and New Albany is a team I thought we were going to get to them at some point, and we never did.
“We were not very good all the way around. We were not good defensively, we were not good offensively and we didn’t pitch very well and that’s why we’re going home 0-2. Today, for whatever reason, we were not aggressive (batting) at all. We watched way too many strikes go by. We’d get in the hole and then we’d swing at stuff we shouldn’t.”
The Owls (2-3) travel to Brownstown Central on Tuesday.
“It’s got to come together pretty quick,” Richey said. “We’ve got one practice to figure it out. As good as we were going into (Columbus), it’s as bad as we are going into (this) week. We’ve got to find some things and be ready to go. It’s not about getting up because it’s the Brownstown game. We’ve got a lot of growing to do.”