By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

ARCANUM — The Trojans baseball team had their chances during the game, but couldn’t come through with the clutch hits. Arcanum lost 3-1 to Eaton at home on April 5.

Head coach Randy Baker said the team was not good with situational hitting. They found themselves in many scoring situations, but didn’t capitalize.

“We had a runner at third with no outs and we don’t score them. Both pitchers threw really well for them, but one hits the first two batters in the inning and we don’t get anything out of that. We got to do a better job of that,” Baker said.

Eaton scored two runs off errors in the top of the second inning. One run scored on a throwing error after a stealing attempt and another was scored off a wild pitch.

In the bottom of the third inning, freshman Lucas Miller led off with a single. Sophomore Kolton Quigney moved Miller to second on a single. Miller then stole third and then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 2-1 game.

On that same pitch, Quigney was at third with no outs. But Arcanum could not bring him around and left the inning down 2-1.

The Eagles scored their third run in the top of the fifth inning on a sacrifice flyout. The base runner got on base on an error.

Baker said both teams gave each other runs in this game. He wants to see the team clean up the defense behind his pitchers, who played well in this game.

The errors are expected with a young team. Baker is proud of his guys for competing and fighting through these errors and not giving up.

“We got to play better defense behind those guys. Both of them threw really well tonight. I’m proud of pitching and proud of our team. We’re going through some growing pains, but we’ll get there,” Baker said.

Arcanum couldn’t get the bats going late and Eaton closed the door on them in the last few innings.

Both teams combined for five hits in the game. Sophomore Regan Christ pitched four innings and had six strikeouts. Sophomore Ethan Kearney pitched three innings and allowed one hit and had a strikeout.

Arcanum is now 3-3 with a 1-1 conference record. Baker said on top of their tough WOAC schedule, they have tough teams in the non-conference. The better competition should help this team grow up.

“Our non-conference is brutal. We play a lot of MAC schools, play Eaton and play Russia and Shelby County teams. We got a double header tomorrow at Fort Loramie. Our non-league is tough, but that’s going to make us better in the end,” Baker said.

The double header at Fort Loramie will start at 1 p.m. They will then host Tri-Village on April 9 and then host Preble Shawnee on April 10 both starting at 5 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]