Crawfordsville dropped an 11-5 non-conference contest to Attica on Friday night in softball.
The Red Ramblers (2-1) scored seven runs across the first three innings and held the Athenians (0-3) scoreless until the fifth.
Crawfordsville managed nine hits, but struckout 13 times. Attica was limited to just six hits, but eight Athenian errors gave the Red Ramblers the advantage.
“We just didn’t make enough plays,” first-year Athenian coach Kevin Kellerman said. “And Kaylie Miller pitched a great game, but we just had eight errors. A lot of them in the infield, just plays we should have made.”
Miller pitched the complete game for the Athenians, and only allowed four earned runs on six hits, walked two and struckout four.
“Some times we are not thinking a play ahead,” Kellerman said about his teams’ errors. “We aren’t thinking about ‘if it comes to me,’ so that’s a mental error compounding with a physical error to follow.”
Offensively the Athenians were led by Olivia Reed, Laine Schlicher, and Miller with two hits apiece, but the rally, which included a pair of RBI and runs from Reed and a solo home run from Allyson Barton in the seventh was too late.
“We are seeing improvement at the plate. We’ve had more hits each game, but the strikeouts have just ballooned. We just need to put more balls in play,” Kellermand said.
Despite the winless start through three games, Kellerman is seeing continued improvement and no lack of effort from his young team, that is starting seven players with no varsity experience.
“I love their fight,” he said. “Halle Elliott is diving for a ball in centerfield in the last inning when we were down. The effort is still there. And Olivia Reed when we were down there talking said ‘there’s one thing differnt about this year, we would have given up two years ago. And this year we don’t give up.’
“We are still young, and I don’t like to use that as an excuse, but it’s real. These girls are playing varsity for the first time, all but two. They’re learning on the fly and getting valuable experience that will help next year, but I want it to help this year. We are playing for this year still. They’re not discouraged and that’s a positive.”
