CROTHERSVILLE
Coach Dustin Lewis says it’s back to square one for his Crothersville baseball team.
“We haven’t had a lot of time out on the field yet this year. It’s been pretty wet,” he said after the Tigers lost 33-0 to Henryville Wednesday in the Southern Athletic Conference opener for both teams. “We need more time on the field, we need time to work on situational stuff. We’ve got to work on our sense of urgency, just the small things.”
Henryville didn’t wait long to get its offense going as the first six batters in the top of the first reached base and scored. The Hornets sent 12 batters to the plate and used three hits, four walks, a hit batsman and three CHS errors to take an 8-0 lead.
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It was 13-0 after two innings and 21-0 at the end of three before the Hornets sent 17 batters to the plate to score 12 runs in the fourth.
The Hornets (2-0) ended up with 26 hits, and received 12 walks off two Crothersville pitchers.
“That’s another thing we need to work on that we haven’t had much time with pitching,” Lewis said.
Kade Badger, leadoff batter for the Hornets, had six hits including a double and triple, scored six runs and had three RBIs. Cole Pirrmann, who batted second, had five hits and a walk, and five RBI.
He was also the winning pitcher, allowing two this while walking one and striking out five.
The Tigers (0-2) had their first base runner in the second inning when Jacob James walked.
Taylor Tatlock had the Tigers’ first hit, a single in the third. Carson Farmer singled in the fourth and Matthew Clouse led off the fifth by reaching first safely on a Henryville error.
Lewis said he is pleased the way his team is making contact.
“We are making contact. We’re starting to move guys a little bit better," he said. “We’ve started hitting good early this season, but we’re lacking in our fielding. I’ve been pushing hitting. The whole off-season, every chance I get I push hitting and it’s starting to show. We’ve got a very good contact rate right now.”
Lewis says he believes in his players.
"I’m very confident in these guys," Lewis said. "They have the ability to be a great team. They’ve just got to find it. We’ve still got a lot of season left. We’re going to hit it hard. We’ve got another home game Friday against Trinity and hopefully we see some better results.”