The Seymour baseball team used a big fourth inning to defeat Brownstown Central 15-2 in the Owls’ home opener on Monday night.

The bottom of the fourth inning featured nine runs, including a three-run launch to left field by Skyler Cockerham for his first home run of the season.

“He got every bit of that one,” Seymour head coach Jeremy Richey said of Cockerham’s three-run blast.

In Seymour’s opener last week against Trinity, the Owls only amounted six hits and Richey wasn’t too pleased with their offense.

It was a different story on Monday as Seymour more than doubled that total, getting 13 hits to Brownstown’s four.

“Just a much better approach, and I think it just got our focus a little more (after struggling in the opener),” Richey said.

In the top of the first, Bret Perry sent one to right-center field, and Brownstown’s outfielders lost it the sun and couldn’t come down with the catch.

Perry got to second, followed by a single from Jack VonDielingen. VonDielingen stole second, and then Charlie Longmeier hit a two-run single to make it 2-0 Seymour with no outs.

“It started in inning one when we had a fly ball that should’ve been caught,” BC head coach Duane Higgs said. “Baseball at its finest, you make a mistake and they get two base hits. That’s definitely a good hitting team, but we had too many mistakes tonight and allowed too many free bases.”

Aiden Darlage then got a hit to send Longmeier to third base, where he scored on a wild pitch from Trent Lowery to make it 3-0.

Vince Wilson then got an RBI single to score Darlage, and the Owls led 4-0 at the end of one.

Brownstown cut the lead in half in the top of the third after Ethan Garland got a one-out single, which led to Carson Darlage sending one over the left field fence for a 2-run homer.

“Carson has had really good at-bats all four games (this season),” Higgs said. “He got rewarded today. He’s seeing the ball well and hitting it the other way.”

But the Owls quickly got those two runs back in the bottom of the inning after Treyton McCormick sent a rocket back up the middle for a two-run single to score Aiden Darlage and Wilson.

The bottom of the fourth started with Aiden Darlage hitting a two-run double to score VonDielingen and Longmeier.

“You look at Aiden Darlage, man he hit every ball hard,” Richey said as Darlage went 3-4 with two RBI.

McCormick then got his third RBI of the day by sending another line drive single up the middle to score Darlage.

Then, Cockerham blasted his home run, Perry had an RBI double and Longmeier hit a two-run double to cap off Seymour’s scoring in the fourth.

“That lineup was pretty good tonight,” Richey said. “That Lowery kid is one of the best left-handers we’ll see this year. He can pitch it, and I think our approach was much better at the plate tonight and we really barreled some balls.”

Perry got his second win on the mound in as many games. He pitched four innings, allowing four hits, two runs and one walk while striking out six.

Mikey Wright pitched the fifth inning to close the deal for Seymour. He threw two strikeouts and then forced a ground out to end the game.

“We know that Mikey is going to a big part on the mound for us, and we knew we wanted to get him in at some point to get him comfortable,” Richey said. “It was good for Bret. The more we can get him out earlier in games with leads like that, we’re going to do that.”

Lowery pitched three innings for the Braves, and he was able to strike out four. Grayson Cassidy pitched the final inning for BC.

Getting hits for Brownstown were Carson Darlage with two, Ethan Garland and Pierson Wheeler.

Eight of Seymour’s nine batters — Perry, VonDielingen, Longmeier, Aiden Darlage, Wilson, McCormick, Cockerham and Braden Richey — all got hits on the night.

Richey will get the start for Seymour (2-0) on Tuesday night at North Harrison.

The games are coming fast and furious at the Owls this week. After Tuesday, Seymour has a three-game homestand against Columbus East Thursday, Salem Friday and New Albany Saturday.

“For the offense to continue to show up,” Richey said on what he wants to see going forward. “That’s the offense we expected that showed up tonight. As long as we hit the ball like we did tonight, we should have a fun week.”

As for Brownstown (2-2), the Braves will be off until Thursday when they host Orleans.

So far through four games, Brownstown has seen the opposing teams’ best pitcher, and Higgs believes that will help his team as the season progresses.

“We had some decent at-bats, but we just have to get more consistent,” Higgs said. “That was our fourth game in five days, and it did a good job of challenging us. It’s about how you bounce back, and at the end of the day, we want to play our best baseball at the end of the season, and games like these will help us.”