Defense was an issue for Emporia High’s softball team in both ends of a doubleheader at Junction City on Tuesday night.
The Spartans made six errors in Game One, losing 8-0, and followed with five more miscues in Game Two, dropping it by a 6-3 score.
“It’s throwing the ball,” EHS coach Ray Owens said. “... We catch it, and then they would try to throw it in too big of a hurry, or they would overthrow. Most of the errors have been overthrows on stuff.”
Emporia (1-3) didn’t lack for baserunners while being shut out in Game One, putting together 10 hits. But the Spartans scattered their hits, not stringing together more than two in any inning.
“We just couldn’t get anybody across,” Owens said. “We hit the ball well. But it was some good hits, and then we’d come up, and Junction City (would) just make the plays to shut us down. All there was to it — they played a good ballgame.”
In Game Two, Emporia fell behind 4-0 after three, then closed that deficit to within one run before Junction put together two runs in its half of the sixth.
“We just gotta play better defense behind our pitching, that’s all there is to it,” Owens said. “It’s that old thing of, they wanna win so bad that once somebody makes a mistake, or somebody gets a hit or something happens, they start pressing too much. And we talked about that — we gotta learn, and we gotta kind of relax and just play the ballgame, let the ballgame come to you and play it.”
Katie Weaver continued her hot hitting for Emporia, going 2-for-4 in the first game and adding one more hit in the second. Her batting average through four games is .571.
“Katie is doing a great job,” Owens said. “She’s putting the bat on the ball and getting down the line, and she’s hitting the ball really well. Even if she doesn’t get a hit, she’s making a lot better contact than she did last year.”
Maryann Bennett and Hannah Lynch each had two hits in the first game, and Lexi Hileman and Lenae Wells had two hits apiece in Game Two.
“I really worked hard on our hitting (in the preseason), and it showed up,” Owens said. “And now I guess I’d better turn around and put that much time in my defense.”
Tuesday at Junction City
Game One
Emporia 000 000 0 — 0 10 6
Junction City 000 233 0 — 8 9 0
WP — Schmidt. LP — Huth.
2B — EHS: Wells, Bennett; JC: Miller. 3B — JC: Schmidt.
Game Two
Emporia 000 210 0 — 3 10 5
Junction City 202 002 x — 6 4 1
WP — Schmidt. LP — Lynch.
2B — EHS: Weaver, Wells, Burton; JC: Johnson, Pender, King. 3B — JC: King.