Colts fall 8-2 to North Hills Christian
Apr. 29—HENDERSON — On Friday, the Crossroads Christian Colts fell to North Hills Christian, 8-2 after dominating Lee Christian the day before.
"We just couldn't hit the ball," said head coach Bryan Taylor.
The Colts struck out 14 times as a team and went 4-25 at the plate (.160) scoring only two runs the whole game.
Crossroads started the game down 2-0, and after crawling back in the second inning to make it 3-2, a hard-hit ball to left-center field scored two more runs for the Eagles, bursting the floodgates wide open.
After a ground ball sacrifice put the Eagles up by five runs, Taylor and his staff subbed in junior Nate Bobbitt on the mound, replacing Jackson Anderson. Needing a big rally in the bottom of the fourth, the Colts couldn't get anything going as they trotted back out on defense.
Baseball IQ was certainly a factor for the Colts as they lacked base running awareness and aggressiveness with two outs. A pair of errors from Turner Taylor didn't help the cause, garnering a chorus of groans in the dugout.
The Colts stranded a total of 11 baserunners with their litany of strikeouts, and in the top of the sixth, Eagles pitcher Chris Barringer was feasting on a healthy diet of K's. The junior right-hander finished with 11 strikeouts in just five innings pitched.
Later in the slide, a nice glove from Jackson Anderson brought the Colts back up to bat as the Eagles swapped Barringer for sophomore Jackson Hall. But one of the Colts' top sluggers, Danny Wieninger, was tossed after a cheeky remark to the home plate umpire following a strikeout.
The Eagles, on the other hand, were having their way at the plate, and with the help of a few more errors on the infield, extended the lead to six — a deficit that proved to be insurmountable.
Despite the last-ditch efforts in the later innings, the Colts limped to a big loss near the end of the season. However, they still have one more bout against Lee Christian for a chance to bring their season record to an even .500.
Two-strike batting approach and clutch hitting are still points of emphasis from the Crossroads coaching staff, and although the Colts have much to improve on, they are still very much in the running to make a postseason push. Crossroads' strongest slugger, Cody Paschall, hit the team's first home run of the year a few games ago against Cape Fear — possibly a good sign of things to come.
STATSDanny Wieninger (Jr.) — 1-3, 1 R
Cody Paschall (Jr.) — 2-4, 2 RBI
Jackson Anderson (So.) — 2-4, 1 R
