Caleb Riordan | Ameritime Sports Writer
The Jefferson R-7 Blue Jays were run over by Perryville 23-8 on Thursday.
This was bad from the jump. Jefferson committed 12 errors in the game and Perryville nearly capitalized on all of them.
The blowout started early when Perryville scored six runs in the first inning off of three Jefferson errors.
The Blue Jays scored two runs of their own in the first inning, as Cami Menke hit an RBI single and later stole home in the inning. It was 6-2 after one.
Unfortunately Perryville did not go an inning without scoring a run. It added two in the second and three more in the third.
Jefferson scored three runs in the third as well. Maggie Brunke hit an RBI single that scored Catryn Cattoor, Brittany Bittick singled to score Brunke and Menke later stole home again. Perryville was up 11-5 after the third.
Perryville added one run in the fourth and two more in the fifth. Jefferson was able to score one in the fifth on another Bittick RBI single.
Perryville exploded for nine more runs in the sixth to seal the deal. Cattoor hit a two-run home run in the sixth but far too much damage had already been done as Perryville ultimately won 23-8.
“We just didn’t play well,” head coach Robert Kuehnle said. “That’s all you can say when you don’t play well against a team that is as good as Perryville… I thought we hit the ball well and there were some good things done but defensively we just need to do better.”
Megan Payne pitched the whole game for the Blue Jays and she had a tough day on the mound. She threw 157 pitches, allowed 15 hits and 23 runs but only seven runs were earned. She walked four batters and struck out three.
Errors were the story of the game for Jefferson. Cattoor and Payne each had one, Bittick and Allison Cambell each had two, Marissa Fastnut and Chloe Vaughn each had three.
Cattoor, Brunke and Bittick all had three hits, Cattoor scored three runs and Brunke and Menke each scored two. Cattoor and Bittick both had two RBIs.
The loss was only the Blue Jays’ second of the season and brought Jefferson’s record to 5-2. They will try to bounce back Friday, Sep. 18 against Northwest.
