LINDEN — North Montgomery’s defensive struggles continued in a 22-1 home opener loss to Clinton Central on Monday night in softball.
The Chargers committed seven errors that led to 10 unearned runs.
“They’re not talking and they don’t know where the play is at,” North Montgomery coach Rob Earley said. “In practice, they’re golden. We got to the point where we weren’t even speaking about it, we wouldn’t tell them where the play was at, they’d just do it themselves.”
The practice isn’t translating to the games though as North Montgomery dropped to 0-3-1 on the season.
Clinton Central led 1-0 after an inning, but tagged the Chargers for 11 in the top half of the second, chasing North Montgomery starting pitcher Paityn Church out of the game. The Chargers committed three errors alone in the second.
The Bulldogs (4-1) did have 15 hits, including four from lead-off hitter Landree Whiteman and a three-hit night from Kortney Surber. Clinton Central continued to blow the game open with an 8-run third inning.
“They see the scoreboard and kind of know what’s going on and they get down on themselves, and they get out of it,” Earley said. “They psych themselves out of it and check themselves out. I know the capability of what they have. They can make those plays, just right now we aren’t making them.”
North Montgomery scored its lone run in the second. Makinze Rominger walked and later scored on a double from Skyley Cloncs. Mallory Morehouse and Cascie Keller each added hits for the Chargers.
Earley is confident his young team will figure out the defense, but knows when they do, their offense will have to improve if they want to be competitive.
“You can make all these plays defensively, but once you get to plate, you’ve got to be able to see the ball,” he said. “There’s three or four who need to be more aggressive. And the ones that have more capabality, they need to be more patient because they’re swinging early in the count.”
North Montgomery opens Sagamore Conference play tonight at home against Western Boone.
