CATAWISSA RR - Southern Columbia has the offensive thing down pretty well,
The defensive thing, not so much.
The Tigers dropped a tough 8-7 Heartland Athletic Conference Division III game to Bloomsburg Wednesday and they did it in a way that has been all too familiar this season, by failing to catch the ball in key situations.
Southern committed seven errors, six in the final three innings, and the Panthers scored two runs in each of those innings, then held off a Southern rally in the bottom of the seventh.
"The last time we had six errors," Southern Coach Randy Young said, "That's what I just told the kids. We can't keep giving the other team six outs in an inning. We work hard on defense every practice and then just don't do it in games."
The loss came despite a 12-hit attack by the Tigers.
Southern (7-4 overall) took a 4-2 lead going into the fifth, thanks in large part to a three-run third in which Mason Peters singled, Taylor Young and Garrett Sosnoskie had back-to-back doubles, and Sosnoskie scored on a groundout.
Sam Miller, who was 4-for-5 with three runs and two runs batted in, led off with a single and Zach Martz followed with another single. An error, a groundout and an infield single brought Miller and Martz home.
With one out in the sixth, Miller doubled and Martz, who was 3-for-5, singled, The ball was mishandled in the outfield, winning pitcher Colton Hock reached on an error at shortstop, and two more runs scored.
The Tigers then committed three errors in the seventh, leading to two more runs, with Miller driving home a run with another double.
But Southern wasn't done. Zach Tillett reached base on a Bloomsburg error to start the inning and Mason Peters doubled him to third. He scored on Young's infield single and Sosnoskie followed with an RBI single. Tyler Behrent was hit by a pitch from Martz, who relieved Hock in the inning, and Nate Hunter walked to bring another run in, making it 8-7 with no runners out yet and bases still loaded.
The next batter, Blake Marks, hit the ball hard to first baseman Hock, who made the grab and doubled Hunter off first. Martz then struck out Rhodomoyer to end the game.
"Blake hit it right on the button," Young said. "If you hit the ball hard and someone makes a play on it, my hat's off to the kid. The run over there (first base) didn't mean anything, and we shouldn't have been doubled, but that's baseball."
"We haven't had many of those things go our way this year," said Bloomsburg Coach Chris Coombe, whose team improved to 8-6 overall. "We really needed that double play, especially the way the ball was hit. Southern has a real good offensive team. They're very disciplined hitters and if you have to come at them with a fastball they'll hurt you.
"Colton really battled hard today. He's been struggling with his breaking ball this year but he was able to get it over for strikes early in the count today and that really helped him."
Young went 3-for-4 for Southern, and Peters, Sosnoskie, Behrent and Marks all had two hits.
Game Summary
BLOOMSBURG (AB-R-H-BI) - C. Klingerman 5-0-0-1, Miller 5-3-4-2, Martz 5-2-3-1, Hock 5-0-2-1, R. Klingerman 3-0-0-1, Streater 4-0-1-1, Kreisher 0-0-0-0, Vincent 3-1-1-0, Kashner 2-1-0-0, Ball 4-1-1-0. Totals 36-8-12-7.
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (AB-R-H-BI) - Peters 4-2-2-0, Young 4-0-3-1, Fegley 0-2-0-0, Sosnoskie 4-1-2-2, Behrent 3-1-2-1, Hunter 2-0-0-2, Marks 4-0-2-1, Wilson 2-0-1-0, Rhodomoyer 2-0-0-0, Michaels 3-0-0-0, Zigarski 2-0-0-0, Tillett 1-1-0-0. Totals 31-7-12-7.
Extra-base hits: 2B - Miller 2; Young, Sosnoskie, Peters. 3B - Ball.
IP H R ER BB K
Bloomsburg
Hock (W) 6 9 4 4 0 9
Martz 1 3 3 2 1 1
Southern
Wilson (L) 5 8 6 4 2 5
Rhodomoyer 2 4 2 0 0 0