SB: Miscues haunt Lady Bears, 12-1
runner out as she covers third base during Tuesday night's District
19-1A contest against Waskom. Errors cost the Lady Bears as they
fell, 12-1. (Photo by John Krueger)
TIMPSON -- For the second consecutive night the Timpson Lady Bears struggled defensively in the first two innings. And for the second time in as many nights THS dropped a District 19-1A matchup. Six errors in the opening two frames against Waskom here at Lady Bear Field Tuesday night resulted in a 12-1 setback in five innings to the Lady Wildcats.
Timpson (8-15, 0-4 district) will try to snap its four-game district losing skid on Wednesday when they travel to Gary to face the Lady Bobcats in another league encounter. The game was originally scheduled for Friday, but was moved up to Wednesday at 1 p.m. because of Spring Break.
Mistakes haunted the Lady Bears against Waskom and made it tough for Lady Bear starting pitcher Caitlyn Smith. Smith went the distance in the circle, allowing just three earned runs (12 total) on 11 hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
"We just didn't play defense behind Caitlyn," said Lady Bear Head Coach Cindy Sessions after the game. "She pitched a good game, but we didn't make routine plays behind her. It's frustrating because we go over a lot of the situations we faced tonight, but we didn't make the plays.
"I think the girls lack the confidence they need, and they seem to dwell on their mistakes. When you're playing this game and you make a mistake, you've got to immediately forget about it and come back and make the next play. If you worry about the last mistake you made, it just builds and then before you know it you're making two or three in a row. That's what has happened to us in the last couple of games (Timpson lost to Overton 10-6 on Monday).
"And the thing about this team is we were coming off games at the Huntington Tournament this weekend where we were making one great play after another defensively; so I know it can be done."
The Lady Bear offense also struggled to find its rhythm. The frustrating problems on defense appeared to be magnified when the offense didn't get its offense in sync. Timpson did score in the second quarter when Shelby Green got on base as the lead-off batter when she was hit by a pitch. She moved to second when Amanda Haney grounded out and advanced to third when Tori Fanguy singled up the middle. Green plated when Smith grounded out to the first baseman.
Fanguy had stolen second and advanced to third on Smith's out, but she was left standing on the basepaths when the third out was called.
Meanwhile, of the eight runs the Lady Wildcats pushed across in the first two frames, only one of them was earned. Still the runs were a huge obstacle for the Lady Bears to overcome.
Waskom added two more unearned runs in the third inning on a costly error, while Timpson managed just one baserunner in the bottom of the frame.
Green reached base again in the fourth inning when she was hit by a pitch. She advanced to second on an error by the Lady Wildcat catcher, but she was called out when she inadvertently ran into the Waskom shortstop as the defender was trying to field a ground ball by Amanda Haney. Haney was then called out on a fielder's choice, ending the Timpson threat.
Waskom pushed two more runs across in the top of the fifth, and the game ended on the 10-run rule in the bottom of the frame when the Lady Bears couldn't score.
STATS AT A GLANCE
Linescore
Waskom 262 02 = 12 11 2
Timpson 010 00 = 01 02 8
Individual Statistics
WP: Riddle (Waskom) - 5 inn., 1 run, 1 ER, 2 hits, 4 K, 1 BB, 2 HB.
LP: Caitlyn Smith (Timpson) - 5.0 inn, 12 runs, 3 ER, 11 hits, 3 K, 1 BB, 0 HB.
2B: None.
3B: Waskom - Parker.
HR: None.
Records: Timpson 8-15, 0-4 district.