lady eagles try to get on track at tourney

A pair of tight setbacks to begin the week has dropped the 2007-08 Seymour Lady Eagles to 6-8 overall and 0-1 in District 3-AA going into this weekend’s Eastman Invitational Tournament in Kingsport.

Seymour was upended by a final score of 3-1 by conference nemesis Alcoa Monday afternoon at the Seymour High School Softball Complex and then dropped a 4-3 decision Tuesday in eight innings at Rutledge.

The Lady Eagles have shown flashes of efficiency as the season nears its halfway point. Seymour has a double-header sweep of South-Doyle and shutout road wins at Anderson County (5-0) and at county rival Pigeon Forge (7-0) to its credit so far.

Despite a quality outing from freshman right-hander Chaney Graham, the Lady Eagles fell behind early and couldn’t manage to catch back up with the Lady Tornadoes Monday at Seymour. Seymour did get a RBI double from catcher Haley Huelsman that scored freshman Courtney Ervin in the sixth inning to avoid what would have been its first shutout loss of the year but couldn’t further capitalize on the late-inning momentum change and wound up suffering the 3-1 setback.

Seymour lit the scoreboard first Tuesday at Rutledge and took a 1-0 first-inning lead. The Lady Pioneers managed to tally three runs in the third to pull in front. Just as they had done the previous night against Alcoa, the Lady Eagles caught fire offensively during the sixth inning and plated two more runs to even the count at 3-3 going into the seventh.

After a scoreless seventh, Seymour failed to get a run across in the top of the eighth and Rutledge took advantage by plating the game-winning score in the bottom half of the extra frame.

First-year Seymour Lady Eagles head coach Chris Smelcer said what is haunting his club most of all is its lack of production at the plate with runners in scoring position.

“Our girls are doing a pretty good job of getting on base,” said Smelcer. “We’ve had 118 total baserunners this year (through Monday’s Alcoa game) but we’ve only managed to score 43 runs. We’re just not getting the production we need with runners in scoring position.”

Smelcer said although Chaney has been more than adequate on the pitcher’s mound to begin her rookie season, the Seymour defense has room to improve.

“We are still plagued by errors on defense,” Smelcer added. “It’s those kinds of things that end up costing you games.”

The Lady Eagles are scheduled to begin play at the Eastman Invitational with back-to-back games against Chattanooga-East Ridge and a team from Richlands, Virginia on Friday. The Lady Eagles are scheduled to play another double-header on Saturday against a pair of East Tennessee triple-A powers. SHS will face Oak Ridge in Saturday’s first contest and will then take on host team Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett in game-two.