Errors in the opener

Kade Sommers caught Malakai Luthy looking to open the game up with a backwards K.

But a pair of walks set the Panthers up, and a single and two Patriot errors gave the visitors an early 3-0 lead.

With an uphill battle, the Patriots just couldn’t find a way to get over the hump.

Eight errors and 10 strikeouts held the Jay County High School baseball team back on both sides of the field Friday night, leading to a 6-1 loss to the Eastbrook Panthers to open the 2025 campaign.

“We’re a young team and we’re still trying to figure out where guys are going to go and do things,” said JCHS coach Todd Farr. “There’s a lot to learn from this obviously. I’m not discouraged or anything like that. These guys are going to battle through it and get back at it. We’ll figure out and get it fixed.”

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Jay County baseball vs. Eastbrook (4/4/2025)

Jay County (0-1) fell behind early after a tough first inning. Following Sommers’ strike out of Luthy, he issued walks to Austin Mikel and Kyler Hackman, despite getting up in the count early on the latter. An error in right field followed to load the bases before Jacob McDermit knocked home the first run on an infield single to shortstop Carter Fugiett. The second run scored on an error by Joe Geesaman at first base as he fielded a Ryder Gipson grounder and overthrew Drew Schemenaur at home. The final run scored on a passed ball before a second strikeout looking and a fly out to center ended the inning.

“I thought it was huge because I think we’re going to have a good offensive squad this year, but we didn’t swing the bats really incredibly well,” said EHS coach Kris Holtzleiter. “We made plays with our legs and fouled a bunch of pitches off that inning that made them work and getting out to that lead was huge.”

The 3-0 advantage paid dividends for the Panthers (1-0) as Jay County only managed one run and one hit — a single by Leighton Brown in the fourth.

The Patriots’ sole run of the game came in the third after Sommers reached base on a walk. Pinch runner Hunter Collins made it to second on an A.J. Myers walk, third on an error by Reid Aupperle at first base and scored on a slow steal attempt.

Outside of the run, the Jay County offense couldn’t find a spark as batters struck out 10 times, including five times looking.

“There was a lot of strike three looking,” Farr said. “We’ve got to shorten the bat and protect the plate and execute a few more things.”

Strikeouts killed the two rallies JCHS had going in the fourth and seventh innings, when it got runners in scoring position but saw three hitters go down on strikes.

Along with the offensive struggles, The Patriots had some problems on defense as eight errors led to five of Eastbrook’s six runs crossing the plate unearned.

Cleaning the defense up will be a point of emphasis as the Patriots look to bounce back from the opening loss.

“We were just not fielding the ball,” Farr said. “We just got to get back to practice and field ground ball after ground ball. … Overall, I feel like we’re a better team than what we showed today.”