Owens: EHS plays better in losses to Aquinas
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Originally published 02:23 p.m., April 8, 2008
Updated 02:23 p.m., April 8, 2008
It was a totally different feeling for Emporia High softball coach Ray Owens when his softball team faced off against St. Thomas Aquinas on Monday.
And even though the end results didn’t come in the form of wins, the coach was still encouraged by what he saw.
“The biggest thing was attitude,” Owens said. “We had a meeting last Friday after our games, and I let the girls know we either had to change attitudes or change players. They chose to change attitudes.”
Though Emporia (0-6) remained winless on the season after dropping two games to the Saints, 7-1 and 6-0, Owens said his team played less mistake-prone and more confident.
“The leadership on the field tonight was much better than it’s been,” he said. “We had a couple errors, but when it happened, they got together and made sure everybody was on the same page and not worrying about it.”
In Game One, St. Thomas Aquinas put up four runs in the third inning to get all the scoring it would need, as the Saints scored their four runs on four hits, a walk and an EHS error.
The Saints put up three more runs in the top of the seventh to go up, 7-0, and Emporia answered with a single run in the bottom of the inning when Lexi Hileman and Cassandra Huth hit back-to-back doubles, but that was all the offense for the Lady Spartans.
Jenn Lechien, Lauren Kimble, Hileman and Huth all finished 1-for-3 at the plate for EHS.
Huth picked up the loss in the circle.
In Game Two, the Lady Spartans were doomed by a pair of home runs from St. Thomas Aquinas junior Cayce Jacquinot off EHS starter Hannah Lynch.
Jacquinot homered in the first inning and again in the fifth, the first being a two-run shot while the second was a three-run blast.
Aquinas also plated a single run in the second inning, and even though Emporia came through with seven hits — the most in a single game this season — the Lady Spartans could not get any of those baserunners in to score.
“I told them after the game, ‘If we could make as much improvement in our batting as we did in attitude and fielding, we could really start to get a lot better,’” Owens said. “We’re getting more people on base, we just have to start getting them home.”
Katie Weaver and Kimble each finished 2-for-3 at the plate in Game Two to lead EHS.
Emporia High is back in action Friday when it travels to take on Topeka High in Topeka.