The Emporia High softball team’s struggles continued on Tuesday as the Spartans were battered and nearly no-hit during a doubleheader with Seaman, dropping their sixth and seventh games in a row.
Seaman starter Erin Greenwood no-hit the Spartans through the first six innings of a 13-0 rout in Game Two, and Vikings reliever Megan Wright got two outs in the seventh before Lexi Hileman chopped a single into left field to break up the no-no. In Game One, EHS committed five errors, and Seaman scored four runs in the fourth and four in the seventh on its way to a 14-5 win.
“If someone could put on their genie hat and tell me who was gonna be the player in this particular game that’s gonna have an off night — because it seems like it’s a different player every week that kind of comes unraveled a little bit and gets things started,” EHS coach Ray Owens said. “And of course, last week and tonight, our hitting was just, I don’t know where it went. It went south on us, I guess.”
Greenwood mowed her way through the Spartans’ Game Two lineup before Seaman coach Kevin Hoffmans pinch-hit for her in the top of the seventh. Wright surrendered Hileman’s base hit just before getting Sam Torres to ground out to end the game.
The Viking offense got to EHS starting pitcher Gabriella Bohrer for 13 runs and 11 hits, and she had some struggles with her control. But Bohrer nonetheless went the distance for Emporia, whose pitching staff has been left thin by an injury to Hannah Lynch that’s keeping Owens from putting Lynch on the mound. Bohrer also relieved Cassandra Huth in the seventh inning of Game One, which Owens said he did to get Bohrer’s feet wet knowing she’d have to pitch the second game.
Seaman added five runs in its half of the seventh to make the second game a double-digit rout.
“The positive is that the girls don’t quit, they don’t give up,” Owens said. “And I thought even though she had her (bad) moments, Gabby threw a good... second ballgame.”
Five errors in Game One helped doom the Spartans, who scored two runs in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth. Hileman at least had some fine moments at the plate, producing Emporia’s best offensive showing of the night. In addition to breaking up the Game Two no-hitter — which she didn’t know about until afterward — she had three hits, including a double off Wright in Game One, and also drove in two runs.
“She wasn’t that fast of a pitcher, and I thought I was connecting with the ball well,” Hileman said. “Second game, coach told us, and also (assistant coach Melissa Crawford), we kind of let the strike zone get to us, and I know that affected me. Maybe not the strike zone where I was used to it in the first game, and it was just a little bit messed up. So I didn’t get the kind of good hits that I wish I would have in the second game.”
Bohrer added a double and an RBI in Game One.
Now 2-10, the Spartans have some things they want to work on as the season’s second half continues — including, in Hileman’s mind, their defense.
“We let too many balls get past us in the infield and in the outfield,” she said. “That’s one thing we have to decrease on. We need to not swing at bad pitches like we have the last couple of games and focus more on single hits, rather than trying to swing for the fence every time.”