For The Tribune
Jeremy Richey said it’s time for his Seymour baseball team to come up with some answers.
“We’ve got a lot of figuring out to do on the last week of the season,” the Seymour head baseball coach said after the Owls fell 8-6 to Madison Friday afternoon in the seventh-place game of the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament at American Legion Field.
“We’ve got to find out who our No. 1 pitcher is, we’ve got to find out what our lineup is. We’ve got a lot of things to figure out and we’ve only got about a week to do it.”
Thanks to two-run home runs from Ethan Leach in the first and third innings, the Cubs held a 5-0 lead after batting in the top of the third.
The Owls left the bases loaded in the second inning, and after the first two batters flew out to center in the third, Seymour put together its best rally of the game.
Mitchell Moore singled and Jorge Vega was hit by a pitch. Keenan Bohall singled to drive-in Moore. Ryan Wieneke struck out, but the catcher was unable to hang on to the ball. He retrieved the ball and threw it past first base, which allowed Vega and pinch-runner Chris Knight to score.
Janzen Bloom then doubled to left-center to bring in Wieneke to cut the deficit to 5-4.
The Owls continued strong offense in the fourth when Luis Munoz doubled and scored on an error.
Moore tripled down the right-field line and scored when Vega grounded out to shortstop.
The Cubs, coached by Seymour graduate Shannon Barger, loaded the bases in the fifth inning on two walks and a single.
Cole Callahan singled to drive in two runs, and the Cubs added another run on a Owls error.
Three Seymour pitchers combined to allow nine hits while walking four and striking out eight.
Richey said he felt like the Owls gave the Cubs too many opportunities.
“The guys we threw today, I didn’t think that would be the issue,” he said. “I thought we would hold on to them.
“We had opportunities we didn’t take advantage of and that’s kind of what happens in baseball,” he said. “They got some big hits, and that’s frustrating. A few weeks ago we handled them pretty easily and today that was not the case. I hope we’re not going back too far.”
On April 21, the Owls downed the Cubs 12-2 at home.
The Owls stranded baserunners in the second, third, fifth and seventh innings, and left eight on for the game on Friday.
Moore, Bloom and Stuckwisch had two hits each.
The Owls (11-9) will play at Charlestown on Tuesday, at Brown County on Thursday, and in a tournament at Richmond on Friday and Saturday.