RUSSIA – Snow lined the fences and Arcanum’s miscues snowballed as the Trojans gave up five runs in the bottom of the sixth on Monday and lost 5-0 to Russia.
After being deadlocked in a scoreless tie for five innings, Russia was able to bring five runs across the plate in the sixth despite having just two hits in the frame.
“They weren’t ready on the bus. They weren’t ready when we got here,” Arcanum coach Rick Stone said of his team. “They’re a lot better team than they showed today.”
Arcanum’s problems began with the first batter in the sixth inning as a soft dribbler in front of the plate turned into a throwing error. Then a fly ball into the outfield was dropped, putting two runners on base with no outs.
Arcanum recorded the first out of the inning but then hit a batter to load the bases. What could have been a 1-2-3 inning continued to spiral out of control as Russia’s Lauren Monnin beat a throw to the plate to score the game’s first run. Shea Borchers then singled to drive in another run, increasing the Raider lead to 2-0.
Arcanum got the second out of the inning, but then the Trojans dropped another fly ball in the outfield, allowing two more runs to score. Lexi Monnin doubled to bring in one more run and make it 5-0.
“One error turned into two, turned into three,” Stone said.
After a walk to load the bases, Arcanum brought Elle Siculan in to pitch, and she got the Trojans out of the jam, leaving the bases loaded.
Arcanum had six hits to Russia’s five on Monday, but the Raiders avoided the miscues that plagued the Trojans in the sixth inning. Arcanum also had the misfortune of lining several hard hit balls directly at Russia defenders.
“We hit the ball well,” Stone said. “We had a lot of hard hit line drives that were caught.”
Camille Pohl and Elliana Sloan led Arcanum with two hits each. Gracie Garno and Macey Hartman also had hits for the Trojans, who fell to 1-1 with Monday’s loss.
