Seymour’s baseball team had one or more hits in every inning during Wednesday’s game against Floyd Central.
However, the Owls were only able to score runs in the fourth and seventh innings and lost 10-3 in the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament contest at American Legion Field.
Owls coach Jeremy Richey said it was good to see seven different batters get hits, with Tyler Bloom and RJ Kleber both getting two.
Richey said his team faced a strong opponent.
“They’re a good team. They had good pitching,” he said. “They’ve not given up many runs all year, so I was pretty proud of us, but obviously frustrated with three runs. That’s a conversation I’m going to have with our guys. They get 10 hits and score 10 runs, and we get nine hits and score three runs. That’s our issue right now.
“The good news is we’re getting better at-bats at the plate. We’ve got to do better with runners in scoring position because we’re not hitting people in, but at least we’re at the point now where we’re getting guys on base and we have more opportunities than we were a couple of weeks ago.”
The Highlanders led all the way as Brayden Edwards hit a two-run single in the top of the first, then added a sacrifice fly in the third inning when the visitors increased their lead to 4-0.
Kleber led off the bottom of the third with a single, Satoshi Hirose was hit by a pitch, and Alan Perry walked to load the bases with no outs. Luis Munoz walked to force in Kleber, and Seth Maki hit a fly ball to center with Hirose scoring.
Another fly ball to short center field and a groundout to the pitcher ended the rally.
“We got to them a little bit here in the third inning, and gave ourselves a chance, and then it just kind of started to get away from us,” Richey said.
The Highlanders scored an unearned run in the fifth, then took advantage of two Seymour errors to score twice in the sixth, then put the game out of reach on Kendall LaFayette’s 3-run homer in the top of the seventh.
With two outs in the fifth, Maki and Bloom came up with back-to-back singles, but a soft liner to third ended that threat.
Hirose led off the seventh with a walk, and Perry and Munoz had singles to load the bases with no outs, but the only run the Owls could come up with was when Bloom grounded out to the second baseman to score Hirose.
Hirose was on base three times, with Perry, Munoz, Bloom and Kleber all getting on twice. The Owls drew three walks and struck out eight times, and left nine runners on base.
Richey said he thinks the offense is improving.
“We’re getting better offense in terms of individual at bats,” he said. “We just have to get better offense in a team setting now with being better situational hitters. We had the top to the middle guys up with runners in scoring positions and didn’t (score). That’s what they’re up there for.”
The Owls (8-8) will travel to Madison Friday for the seventh-place game.