For The Tribune

Coach Jeremy Richey likes the way the Seymour baseball team has swung the bat in their first two games of the season.

The Owls pounded out 12 hits, and had 5- and 6-run innings in defeating Lanesville 14-2 Saturday afternoon at American Legion Field.

That offensive output comes on the heels of an 8-hit game against Trinity Lutheran earlier in the week.

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Richey said it looked like the Owls were more comfortable at the plate than they were against Trinity.

“This is what we’ve seen in practice,” he said.

“We applied pressure a lot different today. We didn’t have to steal seven bases to do it. The way we hit it, the way we ran the bases, our bunt game and our base running is definitely showing up in these games because we spend a lot of time on that with the type of lineup that we’ve got. I’m very pleased with the way our offense played.”

Tyler Bloom opened Seymour’s second inning with a double, and Michael Knecht followed with a bunt hit. After Alex Holt beat out an infield hit, RJ Kleber singled to drive in Bloom Ezra Barr, who went in to pinch-run for Bloom.

Alan Perry singled to produce two runs, Satoshi Hirose hit a sacrifice fly to score Kleber, and Luis Munoz singled to drive in Perry.

Holt singled again in the third inning, Tiller Cummings walked, and Kleber was safe on a fielder’s choice. Hirose singled to drive in two runs and Kleber scored on a wild pitch to make it an 8-0 game.

The Eagles, who were state runner-ups in Class 1A last year, used two hits and two walks to score both of their runs in the top of the fourth.

The Owls, who had 10 batters in the second inning, sent 10 hitters to the plate again in the fourth and drew two walks and had a hit batsman to load the bases.

Kleber and Munoz each drove in one run with singles, and Hirose had a three-run triple.

Hirose had six RBIs with his single, triple and sacrifice fly. Kleber had two hits, two RBIs and scored three times, Perry had two hits, two RBIs and scored two runs, Holt had two hits and scored twice, and Munoz had two hits. Knecht, Barr and Cummings all scored two runs.

“I think our speed is going to cause some problems,” Richey said. “They have to play faster with the guys we have running the bases. There were a couple plays that they had to rush because they had to get rid of the ball quick.

“That’s our game. We’ve not hit many doubles. I know Sammie (Hirose) got into one today (for a triple). Our game is a bunch of guys that can run. Luis took advantage of a double on a ball that may or may not have been a double but he never broke stride. That’s the style we play and it’s a lot of fun to coach these kids.”

The Owls also are confident in the defense right now.

“Defensively, we make one mistake out there (error in centerfield), and it’s going to happen,” Richey said. “Pitching-wise, Tyler was really good early throwing strikes. We gave them a couple runs and that’s stuff when we start getting into the bigger part of our schedule we’ve got to cut those because we can’t be walking a lot of people.”

Bloom pitched the first four innings and Zach Carpenter pitched the fifth, and they combined for six strike outs, four walks and four hits.

The Owls (2-0) will travel to Columbus North on Tuesday.