Tennis
Seymour to meet Scottsburg in title match
Seymour will battle Scottsburg at 9 a.m. today for the championship of the Seymour girls tennis sectional after both teams advanced with 5-0 wins Friday. Scottsburg defeated Brownstown Central, while Seymour won over Trinity Lutheran by forfeit.
Two Trinity girls had a class trip scheduled while a third player did not come to school Friday morning because of illness.
Going into Friday’s match, Braves Coach Erik Stangland thought his team had a good chance to avenge a regular season loss to the Warriors, but those hopes quickly faded.
“It was a disappointing loss,” he said. “I thought we had a good shot to move on. We just could not do anything at the start. We got behind and lost those first sets. That just took all the wind out of us.”
The Warriors, who won the Mid-Southern Conference, defeated the Braves 5-0 on April 26.
Stangland said the Warriors did a better job of adjusting to the wind than his team. “We did not adapt to the wind. They had better ground strokes. That was the difference. They could hit ground strokes in the wind and we couldn’t. We were in position, we just couldn’t finish our shots.”
Braves No. 1 doubles team of Hannah Hackman and Chelsea Luedeman lost the first set to Brinley Soloe and Kira Shelhamer 7-6 (5), but the BC seniors came out strong in the second set and won 6-1. Soloe and Shelhamer turned things around in the third set and won 6-1.
No. 2 doubles was also close but Bella Brown and Kaitlyn Williams couldn’t get over the hump and they lost the first set to Maddie Brown and Skylar Herald 7-5, and then the Warriors won the second set 6-2.
Brave Brynn Burton also forced a three-setter against Olivia Fugate at No. 2 singles. Fugate won the first set 6-4, Burton bounced back and won 6-4 in the second set before Fugate dominated the third set 6-0.
Grace Routt defeated Ava McKinney 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles, and Claire Routt topped Leah Pottschmidt 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3 singles.
Stangland said the Braves did not have a very high percentage of getting their first serves in.
“Hannah probably had the best percentage on first serves, but not enough,” he said.
Hackman and Luedeman were the only seniors on the court for the Braves on Friday.
“It was a good four years,” Stangland said of his seniors. “We’ve got our singles and our No. 2 doubles back and they’ve really come on. We’ve got a lot of potential there. Today they just didn’t have the ground strokes. For a team that a lot of people said wouldn’t get two wins this year, to end up with seven wins (7-11) and be able to make this a match tonight that was a big plus.”
The Braves advanced Wednesday night with a 3-2 win over Austin. Stangland said, “The girls needed that.”
Seymour defeated Scottsburg 3-2 on April 12. Winning points that day for the Owls were Brooke Schafstall at No. 1 singles, Elise Hartung at No. 3 singles, and Addison Hunsley and Jessica Hougland at No. 2 doubles.
The winner of today’s match will advance to the Bloomington Regional on Tuesday. Bloomington North is the “host” school but the tournament will be played at Bloomington South.
Softball
Owls end season on high note
The Seymour softball team ended its regular season with a 16-8 victory at Franklin Community on Friday.
Addyson Coomer led the Owls with two hits and five RBI, Kendrick Sterling had three hits and three RBI, and Sydney Stewart had two hits and two RBI.
Kendall Allman, Abby Followell, Kaylee Waskom and Kynadee Warner each had one RBI as well.
The Owls will turn their attention to sectionals next week as they prepare to take on Floyd Central on the Highlanders’ home turf next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Baseball
Braves fall at Madison
The Brownstown softball team suffered a 17-5 loss at Madison on Friday night.
Brownstown took a 5-0 lead after the first inning but then allowed 17 unanswered runs.
Trent Lowery and Grant Killey each had two hits and Carson Darlage had one hit. Darlage had one RBI, as did Killey and Ethan Davis, and Lowery had two RBI.
Killey, Deven Cummings and Karson Rollins all spent time on the mound during the game.
Brownstown will be back in action today at home against Southwestern (Hanover), starting at 10 a.m.