Coming into the season, Marissa-Coulterville had new players at the infield positions except shortstop and the inexperience showed Tuesday with a 9-2 loss to Okawville as the Lady Meteors had four costly errors.
“We have a completely new infield except for Corey Pitchford at shortstop,” said Marissa-Coulterville coach Anne Trieb. “It is wreaking a little havoc right now. We are playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Our hitting has carried us in our earlier games to overcome some of these errors, but not today. Okawville is one of the top teams in our area year in and year out, and you can’t give them too many opportunities like we did today.”
Okawville took control of the game early scoring a run in the top of the first inning and then adding two more in the second off three hits and an error.
Marissa-Coulterville freshman hurler Ashley Lehmen then pitched around two errors in the third inning to keep the deficit at 3-0.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Lady Meteors got two runners on base with just one out, but Okawville pitcher Jaci Lake kept them off the scoreboard by escaping the inning with two consecutive strikeouts.
The Lady Rockets began to pull away by adding another run in the fifth thanks to back-to-back two out hits.
Okawville then exploded for five runs on four hits, two walks and an error for a commanding 9-0 lead.
Marissa-Coulterville spoiled the shutout bid in the sixth with two hits, including an RBI single by Camille Bumann and a walk to score its first run of the game.
Bailey Setzkorn led the bottom of the seventh with a double and would later score on a wild pitch to score Marissa-Coulterville’s final run of the game.
Lehmen got the loss for the Lady Meteors as she pitched all seven innings allowing nine runs on 14 hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Lake picked up the complete game win for Okawville allowing two runs on six hits with just one walk and eight strikeouts.
Pitchford finished the game going 2-for-2 from the plate to lead the Lady Meteors, while Abbie Lehmen was 2-for-4 and Sonnie Young was 1-for-2.
With the loss, Marissa-Coulterville dropped to 5-3 on the season.