By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

ARCANUM — The Franklin Monroe baseball team made a comeback attempt in the seventh inning, but couldn’t overcome the early deficit. The Jets lost 8-5 to Emmanuel Christian at home on April 29.

Head coach Tyler Zimmerman said the team didn’t come out with enough energy. That led to some early mistakes that put the team behind the eight ball early.

“I didn’t feel like the energy was there from the dugout. A lot of mental mistakes on our part. They (Emmanuel Christian) made the plays. They hit the ball hard, put it where we weren’t and we weren’t ready for that,” Zimmerman said.

Emmanuel Christian came out swinging. They scored one run on a double steal in the first inning and then had a few runners on in the second inning. However, Franklin Monroe got out of that jam to stay behind by the one run.

Sophomore Madex Skidmore scored on an throwing error to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second.

Emmanuel Christian responded right away scoring four runs in the top of the third inning, with two of them coming on an error.

Zimmerman said the team didn’t make enough plays defensively. They would make one or two plays before a mistake or an error occurred.

“We expect better of ourselves defensively. But on their end, they hit the ball hard and they found gaps. Defensively, they made all the plays,” Zimmerman said.

Franklin Monroe scored a run off an error after sophomore Brandt Filbrun hit a ball into the outfield. The outfielder couldn’t catch it cleanly and the ball dropped. The run made it a 5-2 game.

Emmanuel Christian threatened in the fifth inning getting two runners on with two outs. Sophomore Josh Armstrong forced the pop out to get out of the inning.

But the bats kept going in the top of the sixth inning. Emmanuel Christian had bases loaded with no outs. After getting the lead runner out, Emmanuel Christian scored a run. They followed up with a two-run single to go up 8-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, sophomore Landon Osborn hit a RBI single to chip into the deficit. That run could have made a difference in the game.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Jets loaded the bases and had two outs. Armstrong hit a two-run single, but that was all the Jets could muster.

Zimmerman said the team needed to get the bats going earlier and couldn’t wait that long to get going. If they could have made some plays earlier, they wouldn’t have to rely on a late inning rally.

“We waited way too long today. Put ourselves in hole deep and then you got to try to fight back up. We scored three in the seventh, ran ourselves out of that inning. Maybe could have kept things going,” Zimmerman said. “But, we didn’t make the plays we needed to defensively and ECA did.”

Armstrong pitched five innings and had four strikeouts. Senior Conner Neitzelt had a strikeout in an inning pitched.

Franklin Monroe falls to 6-10 on the season with a 2-4 WOAC record. They will have to shake this one off and head to Ansonia for a WOAC matchup on April 30 starting at 5 p.m.

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