photo by: Chris Duderstadt

Free State junior LJ Jones stops at third base following a wild pitch in the fourth inning of the Firebirds' 2-1 loss to Shawnee Mission Northwest on Thursday at FSHS.

Free State softball coach Lee Ice often breaks the game down into three critical categories — pitching, defense and timely hitting.

The Firebirds didn’t have to worry about solid pitching on Thursday against Shawnee Mission Northwest with freshman Tatum Clopton in the circle, but they had one defensive breakdown and weren’t able to come through with a clutch hit. While Clopton struck out 15 and only allowed two hits, it wasn’t enough for the Firebirds in a 2-1 setback against Megan Formwalt and the Cougars.

“We didn’t get timely hits, we made one or two mistakes and that’s the difference in close ball games,” Ice said. “It’s easy to win the 9-1 games and the 12-0 games, but it’s the close games that you have to execute and you’ve got to make plays.”

The Cougars’ first run came as a result of a miscue in the field. Kaitlin Pauli worked a rare walk against Clopton to lead off the third inning. Pauli advanced to second base after Lauren Wolfe grounded into a fielder’s choice. After getting the force out, Free State first baseman Georgia Rea tried to throw behind Pauli at second to get a double play. The throw went into the outfield, which allowed Pauli to come around and score.

After having the tying run thrown out at the plate to end the third, the Firebirds pulled even in the fourth when LJ Jones scored on a fielder’s choice. While Haley Lockwood-Peterson was able to bring in Jones with a groundout, the Firebirds felt like they should have had more after loading the bases with one out.

“Coach Ice likes to talk a lot about how those little errors can cost the game. We had that one that did give them that one run,” Jones said. “It’s kind of like the little things that we need to fix. And our hitting obviously wasn’t on like it has been. Other than that, I feel like we know what we need to learn from and we can come in on Saturday and pull it out.”

The Cougars capitalized on one of the few mistakes by Clopton when Jennaka Bultman cranked a two-out RBI triple to right in the sixth. Ice couldn’t ask for much more from Clopton, though, and is anxious to see how his team responds to its first loss of the season. The Firebirds (3-1) will try to bounce back against Olathe West at 1 p.m. Saturday at the College Boulevard Activity Center.

“We’ve got to let this one go because we practice tomorrow and we play again on Saturday. Then we go Tuesday, Thursday and a doubleheader next Saturday,” Ice said. “You can’t let one game define the season. Hopefully you learn from it. Better now than later.”

SMNW 001 001 0 — 2 2 0

FSHS 000 100 0 — 1 3 1

W — Megan Formwalt. L — Tatum Clopton.

3B — Jennaka Bultman, SMNW.

Free State highlights — Tatum Clopton 7.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 15 K, 2 BB.