Trinity Lutheran’s softball and baseball teams couldn’t keep Rising Sun off the base paths Thursday afternoon and both teams lost.
Rising Sun’s softball team scored six runs each in the fifth and sixth innings to post a 13-2 win, while the baseball team scored two runs each in the first and second innings and went on to an 8-0 victory.
Shiners hand
Cougars first loss
Trinity Lutheran’s Kamzi Gross and Rising’s Sydney Pitts locked up in a pitcher’s duel through four inning with the only run during that time coming on a home run by Pitts leading off the game.
The Shiners (3-0) broke loose for six runs in the fifth inning and added six more in the sixth.
The Cougars were held to three singles through the first five innings before Savannah Harweger led off the sixth with by reaching base on an error. Gross singled, and after the runners moved up on an infield out, Jaryn Holtsclaw lined a single past the pitcher to score Harweger and Gross.
Harweger singled in the first and walked in the third. Bailey Reynolds singled in the second and Hannah Kerkhof singled in the sixth for the other Trinity hits.
Cougars coach Bob Tabeling said his team faced a strong pitcher in Pitts, a left-hander who struck out eight and walked one. She also hit another home run in the sixth inning.
“When you’re facing pitcher like that to string four, five or six hits together is almost impossible,” Tabeling said. “ You have to take advantage of those opportunities and get a couple of hits and run. We tried that early with Savannah moving and they threw her out and that’s a credit to that team. That’s a very good team.
“The other thing I tried to share with the players is we had three at bats against a very good pitcher. We’ll take the positives away from that, and what we’ve been successful with in our first two games is not giving extra outs and not doing those type things we didn’t do that very well today.”
The Cougars had three errors in the fifth inning and one error in the sixth.
“I told Kamzi that she threw more pitches today than she did the first two games combined, and we didn’t help that, we made errors. I don’t have a relief pitcher to bring in and get her out of that situation,” Tabeling said.
“So we’re just going to have to hit the spots and keep working from that standpoint. We’ve got to figure out how to get players out without her having her fastest fastball with location. Hopefully she learns a little bit about that. I hate it, but until she gets 120 or 140 pitches into it you don’t know how that will effect it.
Today’s scheduled game against Austin has been cancelled. The Cougars (2-1) will host Indianapolis Lutheran Tuesday.
“If you look at the good things, we got quality at bats, we had hits from the top of our line up, and we got hits from the bottom part of our line up off a very good pitcher,” Tabeling said. “We’ve got to take the little positives and get through the season and get ourselves ready for the end of the year.”
Shiners shut Cougars’ offense down
The Cougars loaded the bases in the sixth inning but couldn’t get the big hit to get in the scoring column and were blanked for the first time this season.
Tyler Goecker led off the sixth with a walk and Trent Shoemaker singled. Jack Marksberry walked to load the bases, but a fly out and ground out ended the threat.
Goecker, and Noah Voelker had singles earlier in the game.
The Shiners scored a run in the fourth, then broke the game open with three runs in the top of the seventh.
“We’ve just got to start hitting with more confidence,” Trinity coach Ben Kleber said. “This kid threw a lot of fastballs. I think he threw every first-pitch fastball and we were just not ready to hit. I don’t know what to do to change that but we’ve got to get more confidence at the plate.
“The thing is, we’ve got five guys in the lineup that have never hit at the varsity level. We’re learning and we’ve improved from the beginning of the year. We’ve seen a lot of good arms. That kid was good so I’m not taking anything away from that kid. He was hitting the high 70s low 80s so he is a good pitcher.”
Goecker was on base three times with two walks and a hit.
“Defensively, we played a lot better,” Kleber said. “This was probably our best game defensively. Our pitchers threw well. Jack (Marksberry) went into the seventh and did a good job. He’s got to cut down on his walks. You walk a guy, you hit a guy and then a hit scores them both. If we cut down on the free ones we’ll be all right.”
The Cougars (1-3) are scheduled to play at Crothersville today.