Young Jackson softball team endures lumps

The Jackson Indians feature a promising but young softball team this season.

That means there are growing pains.

The Indians experienced those pains Wednesday with an 11-3 loss to Seckman.

"We have five freshmen and sophomores out there," Jackson coach Amanda Forester said. "And it's hard to pick themselves up. I'm looking forward to seeing them progress and stay positive."

One of those sophomores is hurler Mollie Crader. She pitched four innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and 11 walks.

Jackson's Brittany Jones covers the base as Seckman base runner Alison Szydlowski makes it safely to third during the fourth inning Wednesday in Jackson. (Kristin Eberts)

"She's young," Forester said. "We have zero varsity experience on the mound. So it takes a little while to get confident and play with your defense. We're getting there."

While Crader struggled to find the strike zone, the Jaguars (2-0) failed to take full advantage early on.

The Jaguars pushed across two in the first after a walk, single and throwing error, but left the bases loaded when Crader coaxed Amy Limpert to fly out to center field.

Jackson answered.

Megen Hobeck led off with a slap single and Brooke Whitledege reached on an error. Demesha Huddleston drew a walk to load the bases, and Katie Garner walked to bring in a run two batters later. Chelsea Dye followed Garner with a sacrifice fly to even the score at 2-2.

Jackson's Demesha Huddleston gets a base hit during the third inning Wednesday.

Seckman wasted little time regaining the lead, this time for good.

The Jaguars' Jessica Montgomery drew one of her five walks to reach first with two outs and Lindsay Schaefer blasted a double to drive her in. Schaefer later scored on a wild pitch, but once again Crader worked out of a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage.

"We played yesterday and weren't real patient," Seckman coach Steven Bonastia said. "We talked after the game about being more patient and being selective at the plate. We took pitches and then we could sit back and hit. We took a lot of walks, but we had a lot of good hits and a couple big two-out hits later on."

One of those big two-out hits came in the top of the fifth inning.

With runners on first and second and nobody out, Schaefer lined a double to drive in one. The Jaguars' Emma Martin drove in the other run with a fielder's choice to make it 6-2.

Jackson attempted to answer when Whitledege led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, but was doubled off when Huddleston's hard line drive was snagged by the second baseman and thrown to first to get Whitledege.

"We definitely didn't pull through with a big hit," Forester said. "The finely timed hitting wasn't there."

Martin dropped the dagger with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth. The senior first baseman lined a hit to right-center field, driving in two more to give Seckman a comfortable 8-2 lead.

"Huge," Bonastia said of the hit. "Martin had a big hit. After that I thought it may have sealed the deal. The first three innings we had left so many runners on base it was nice to get that big hit. I think it kind of pulled Jackson down a bit. But give them credit, they battled. I love coming down here and playing them."

Added Martin: "Coach was telling me to scoot back in the box so I could hit, and it worked. It was really nice to get those insurance runs."

Seckman 220 023 2 -- 11 14 2

Jackson 200 010 0 -- 3 5 4

WP -- Madison Leonard. LP -- Mollie Crader. 2B -- Lindsay Schaefer 2 (S), Brittany Jones (J). Multiple hits: Seckman -- Amanda McCarl 2-5, Schaefer 3-5, Emma Martin 4-5.