Stingy pitching and productive offense allowed Seymour’s baseball team to cruise to an 8-1 victory over Bedford North Lawrence in Monday’s opening round of the Hoosier Hills Conference tournament.

The Owls (12-7) got six innings of two-hit, shutout pitching from starter Aden Burnside. The senior didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning, struck out eight batters and successfully quashed two Bedford scoring opportunities.

Seymour’s hitters, meanwhile, generated runs in all but one inning and officially broke the game open with a four-run fourth inning. That outburst expanded the Owls’ lead to 6-0 and put the game out of BNL’s reach.

“I’m proud of our guys because we got thumped pretty good on Thursday (a 10-0 loss to Floyd Central),” Seymour head coach Jeremy Richey said. “We haven’t played since that loss and this group responded well. We’re maturing and showing we can handle that kind of adversity.”

Monday’s victory advances Richey’s club to the winner’s bracket of the HHC tournament. The Owls will host New Albany on Wednesday in the semifinal round. The Bull Dogs defeated Floyd Central on Monday, 3-2.

Entering the 2022 season, Seymour last defeated Bedford in 2019. This season, the Owls have now beaten the Stars (10-11) twice, with the first win coming last month at Bedford in an 11-6 extra-inning win.

In fact, Seymour will go for a third win over BNL in two weeks when sectional play begins. That looming matchup was not far from Richey’s mind as Monday night’s game unfolded.

“I don’t do this a lot, but around the fourth or fifth inning, I got our guys together and talked about the importance of continuing to play,” Richey said. “Bedford has scored a lot of runs late in games, so we didn’t want our guys settling. I wanted us to continue to play, and we did. It was a statement tonight.”

Sophomore Bret Perry scored Seymour’s first two runs then knocked in the third and fourth runs with a groundball single in the fourth inning that somehow got through Bedford’s drawn-in infield. Jack VonDielingen and Jack Pennington scored on Perry’s hit to give the Owls’ a 4-0 lead.

Andrew Levine scored on a Charlie Longmeier sacrifice fly and Perry crossed the plate when Aiden Darlage reached base on an error, swelling Seymour’s lead to six runs.

The Owls rounded out their scoring when Pennington knocked Mikey Wright home with a single in the fifth and Longmeier scored on a wild pitch in the sixth.

Seymour finished with eight hits, with Perry and Longmeier each getting two. Treyton McCormick, Darlage, Wright and Pennington also added singles.

Given early-and-often run support, Burnside took care of business on the mound. In the second inning, after a Bedford runner reached third base with no outs, the lefthander struck out the next two batters and got the third out on a grounder to VonDielingen.

In the sixth inning, Burnside again denied a promising Bedford run-scoring opportunity, this time with his glove. Thanks to a quick reaction and a perfect throw by catcher Vince Wilson, Burnside tagged out Grant Dalton as he tried to score on a wild pitch.

With Monday’s effort, Burnside improved his season record to 5-1 in eight starts and dropped his earned run average to a stellar 2.32.

“That’s what he’s done all year,” Richey said. “Actually, that’s what he’s done the last two years. He looks so confident out there, so composed. He’s our horse. He’s the guy that needs to throw well in these games, and he continues to do that for us.”