Long balls can’t save Lions

LHS softball team swept despite home-run barrage

Reenie Stogsdill usually brings two game balls to Lawrence High home softball games. For some reason Monday afternoon, the LHS coach grabbed four.

It’s a good thing she did.

On an otherwise downer day for the Lions on which they lost, 10-0 and 14-6, to Olathe North, LHS hit a season-high three home runs.

“I’m not happy with the way we played,” Stogsdill said. “I don’t think we came out ready to play all around, but if I can find a positive, it would be that some of the kids who have been struggling at the plate got some real confidence by the way they hit the ball.”

First baseman Amanda Weishaar started the home-run onslaught in the second inning of Game 2 with a solo shot. It was the first homer of her career. As soon as she got back to the dugout and got her souvenir, she had to leave for the school musical “Showtime,” which she performed in Thursday night.

“Nice coaching,” Stogsdill joked. “You hit a home run, you’re out of the game.”

Caitlin Bowlin almost hit homer No. 2 in the third inning. Bowlin hit a debatable ground-rule double over the left-field fence. Sarah Espy, North’s left fielder, ran through the temporary fence and Stogsdill argued the ball would have cleared the fence even if Espy hadn’t knocked it over.

Bowlin’s RBI double, along with an RBI double by Lauren Kelly earlier in the inning, cut North’s lead to 5-3.

The Eagles answered by scoring six runs in the fourth. They also moved Espy, the Game 1 pitcher, back to the circle in the fourth inning. Espy didn’t give the Lions much to feel good about in the opener. She threw a two-hit shutout and struck out 11.

Hannah Somers, the Lions’ leadoff hitter, went 0-for-3 in the first game against Espy, but she got redemption in the fourth inning when she went deep for the Lions, her second homer of the season. Unfortunately, no one was on base.

Espy did not give up another hit until Somers led off the seventh inning with a single. After Sam Hays grounded out, Kelly hit the Lions’ third homer of the game and the second homer against Espy.

“She’s a very good pitcher and I thought she threw really well in the first game,” Stogsdill said. “In the second game, I think our kids had nothing to lose and went up to the plate against her with a little more confidence.”

Kelly’s home run was the first of her high school career, although she has hit five during the summer seasons.

“I always have my hitting slumps during the high school season,” she said.

Other than the homers, the Lions did not have much else go right.

While Espy dominated, LHS pitcher Sydney Serratte struggled in the opener after throwing a perfect game Monday against Leavenworth in the Lions’ first victory of the season. Serratte had to leave after the first game because she was also in the school musical.

“I think people weren’t really thinking about the game,” Kelly said. “Some people were worried about the second game and how some players were going to be gone for Showtime.”

Serrate is the only LHS pitcher with experience before this season, and the inexperience showed in Game 2. Starter Kacie Welborn pitched around trouble until the fourth inning, when she gave up six runs. Junior varsity pitcher Jamie Morgison relieved Welborn and gave up two runs in the sixth inning on passed balls and another in the seventh because of another passed ball.

With the two losses, the Lions’ record dropped to 1-11. It’s the most losses Stogsdill has had in her 11-year career at the school.

But the Lions broke another record Monday, too. Stogsdill has never had a team hit three homers in one game and never had to give away three game balls.

“I’m happy to spend the money on new balls,” she said.