SEYMOUR – Seymour battled back from a three-run deficit with late rallies in the final two innings for an 8-5 victory over Bedford North Lawrence during high school softball action on Tuesday.
The Owls (13-7 overall, 4-1 in the Hoosier Hills Conference) erased BNL’s 4-1 lead with a three-run fifth, on the power of Taylor Stuckwisch‘s two-out, three-run home run, than scored four times in the sixth to stop the Stars (16-9, 2-3 in the HHC).
After Stuckwisch’s blast created a 4-4 deadlock, Seymour loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, then scored the go-ahead run on a single by Phoebe Underwood. The final three runs scored on two hit batters and a ground out.
Seymour collected 13 hits and left eight runners on base as BNL starter Karsyn Coleman and reliever Macee Nicholson worked in constant trouble.
”We gave up too many runs,” BNL coach Brad Gilbert said. “That’s a lot of hits. It’s a little frustrating. We were close, but we didn’t score enough and we let them score too much. We knew it would be a battle, and we gave them a battle for a while.”
BNL took a 3-0 lead the third when Adalynn Bailey doubled to right, Ava Ratliff was intentionally walked with two outs, and Kendall Graves clubbed a three-run bomb to left.
“Kendall has done that a couple of times this year, and she needs to continue to do that, to make teams think twice about walking Ava,” Gilbert said. “So there were positives, just not enough to win.”
BNL made it 4-1 in the fifth as Tori Nikirk tripled to right and Graves lofted a sacrifice fly. The Stars added a run in the seventh as Nikirk, Ratliff and Graves strung together three straight hits. Nikirk and Graves had two hits each, and Graves drove in five runs.
Abby Followell, who slugged a solo home run in the third, had three hits for the Owls.
BNL will host Jeffersonville on Wednesday.
