Fairfield’s 33-game SHAC winning streak ends
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LEESBURG — Eastern Brown did Thursday what no other Southern Hills Athletic Conference team was able to do in 33 consecutive games. Eastern took complete advantage of throwing errors, fielding errors, four unearned runs and a home run that resulted in a 5-2 Fairfield conference loss.
The loss by the Lady Lions was their first in the SHAC since April 24, 2015 when they lost to the Fayetteville Lady Rockets by a 7-6 score in a game also played at Fairfield High School.
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On Thursday, Fairfield finished with eight hits and also forced six walks, but defensively, they also committed five errors. Three Lady Lions — Lyndee Spargur, Kaiti White and Layla Hattan — each finished with multiple hits as Spargur scored both Fairfield runs. Also with a hit for Fairfield was Madison Fox.
Spargur led the Lady Lions at 3-for-4 with two runs, while White and Hattan each had two hits. Carli Reiber drew three of the six Fairfield walks and Lauren Arnold had two, while White had one.
For the game, Fairfield out-hit the Lady Warriors, 8-6, but it all came back to errors with the aforementioned five committed by the Lady Lions and none by Eastern.
“Coach Harold [Dorsey], Dennis and those guys at Eastern Brown just do a fantastic job, and they got off the bus ready to play,” Fairfield head coach Mark Dettwiller said. “For some reason, we struggled to play defense today. We just didn’t seem to make a good throw, and (Eastern) had one earned run. We’ve got some work to do.
“The little things will hurt you every time. We don’t execute and we don’t make a good throw, and that is what got us today. We had five errors total, and you can’t do that against a quality opponent like Eastern Brown because you will get beat.”
Fairfield scored their two runs in the first and second innings, with Spargur — who singled to open the inning — scoring the first run of the game off a sacrifice fly to left field by Hattan.
Spargur tied the game at 2-2 (Eastern scored two runs in the top of the second inning) off a single by White.
Even with all of those numbers, the Lady Lions were unable to gain much momentum, as Eastern — who was playing in their first game of the season — had everything go their way as they had a big three-run sixth inning.
In that top part of the sixth, Jayden Koehler reached first base on a throwing error to first base, and following the first out of the inning Andrea Edmisten hit a two-run home run off the foul pole for a 4-2 lead. Edmisten led Eastern at the plate with a 2-for-4 performance with one run and two RBI.
Still in the sixth, Eastern had Whitney Broughton score a run for the final 5-2 advantage.
Fairfield still had opportunities in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, but totaled two walks and one base hit in those two innings combined.
The winning pitcher was Taylor Dotson of Eastern. She finished by pitching all seven innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and six walks. Dotson finished the game with three strikeouts.
White was charged with the loss, her first of the season. The junior allowed five runs (one earned) on six hits and one walk. White finished with 13 strikeouts in seven innings in the circle.
Next for the Lady Lions is a SHAC game against the Peebles Lady Indians at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 6.
The loss by the Lady Lions was their first in the SHAC since April 24, 2015 when they lost to the Fayetteville Lady Rockets by a 7-6 score in a game also played at Fairfield High School.
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On Thursday, Fairfield finished with eight hits and also forced six walks, but defensively, they also committed five errors. Three Lady Lions — Lyndee Spargur, Kaiti White and Layla Hattan — each finished with multiple hits as Spargur scored both Fairfield runs. Also with a hit for Fairfield was Madison Fox.
Spargur led the Lady Lions at 3-for-4 with two runs, while White and Hattan each had two hits. Carli Reiber drew three of the six Fairfield walks and Lauren Arnold had two, while White had one.
For the game, Fairfield out-hit the Lady Warriors, 8-6, but it all came back to errors with the aforementioned five committed by the Lady Lions and none by Eastern.
“Coach Harold [Dorsey], Dennis and those guys at Eastern Brown just do a fantastic job, and they got off the bus ready to play,” Fairfield head coach Mark Dettwiller said. “For some reason, we struggled to play defense today. We just didn’t seem to make a good throw, and (Eastern) had one earned run. We’ve got some work to do.
“The little things will hurt you every time. We don’t execute and we don’t make a good throw, and that is what got us today. We had five errors total, and you can’t do that against a quality opponent like Eastern Brown because you will get beat.”
Fairfield scored their two runs in the first and second innings, with Spargur — who singled to open the inning — scoring the first run of the game off a sacrifice fly to left field by Hattan.
Spargur tied the game at 2-2 (Eastern scored two runs in the top of the second inning) off a single by White.
Even with all of those numbers, the Lady Lions were unable to gain much momentum, as Eastern — who was playing in their first game of the season — had everything go their way as they had a big three-run sixth inning.
In that top part of the sixth, Jayden Koehler reached first base on a throwing error to first base, and following the first out of the inning Andrea Edmisten hit a two-run home run off the foul pole for a 4-2 lead. Edmisten led Eastern at the plate with a 2-for-4 performance with one run and two RBI.
Still in the sixth, Eastern had Whitney Broughton score a run for the final 5-2 advantage.
Fairfield still had opportunities in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, but totaled two walks and one base hit in those two innings combined.
The winning pitcher was Taylor Dotson of Eastern. She finished by pitching all seven innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and six walks. Dotson finished the game with three strikeouts.
White was charged with the loss, her first of the season. The junior allowed five runs (one earned) on six hits and one walk. White finished with 13 strikeouts in seven innings in the circle.
Next for the Lady Lions is a SHAC game against the Peebles Lady Indians at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 6.