By Noah Dalton
ORLEANS – After a 10-1 loss to Seymour on Monday, Mitchell High School were dealt a similar result in their next game on Wednesday, losing to Patoka Lake Athletic Conference opponent Orleans by a final score of 9-1.
Though the two teams finished with similar hit counts, five for the Bluejackets and seven for the Bulldogs, Orleans managed to bat in six runs in the game, besting Mitchell’s lone RBI, which came from a fourth inning home run from Avery Southern, her third of the season.
Those RBIs, combined with some costly errors from the Bluejackets, led to the final score on Wednesday.
Orleans jumped to an early led after a solo HR from Adrian Abel in the first inning. They’d score two more in the third after an error from Mitchell on a fly ball hit by Maddy Spires allowed her and Abel, who was walked at the start of the inning, to score.
Southern’s homer in the top of the fourth brought the score to 1-3, but Abel would counter in the bottom of the inning, smashing her second ball over the fence of the game, this time a two-run shot to increase Orleans’ lead to 1-5.
The Bulldogs would add three more runs in the sixth behind two RBI singles, one from Spires and the other from Izzie Rutherford, and an error from the Bluejackets that allowed Spires to cross home in back-to-back-to-back at bats.
In addition to her two HRs and three RBIs, Abel earned the win for Orleans, throwing four innings with two strikeouts and four hits allowed during her time at the mound. She was relieved by Rutherford, who struck out six of the 11 batters she faced in the game’s final three innings.
Mitchell freshman pitcher Karsyn Coleman will receive the loss for the matchup. She pitched for four innings, allowing four hits and five runs while striking out six hitters. Southern pitched the final two innings of the game. She struck out two, while Orleans added three hits and four runs during her time at the mound.
Both Southern and Graclynn Payton earned two hits for the Bluejackets, the team’s other came from Page Mullis.
