Walks and errors came back to bite the Lady Devils on Tuesday, falling in a slugfest to Muhlenberg County 18-16 on the road.
The Lady Mustangs looked to put pressure on Owensboro early, grabbing nine runs in the bottom of the first. The Lady Devils responded swiftly, starting the top of the second with a leadoff walk and a two-run shot to center by junior Ashleigh Howard.
Later in the inning an RBI single by junior Sophie Moorman was followed by a walk to load the bases for Owensboro, with senior K’Asia Palmer clearing them with a double the very next at-bat. Sophomore Alyssa Rhineburger followed with an RBI double of her own, cutting the Lady Devils deficit to 9-7 heading into the bottom of the second.
Muhlenberg County got three back in the bottom of the second to make it 11-7, but Owensboro answered with three of their own in the top of the third inning with a home run from sophomore Ellington Embry. The Lady Mustangs battled right back once again though, grabbing five runs in the bottom half of the inning to bring it back to 17-10.
The Lady Devils did get five more runs over the next two innings, but it was too little too late as Muhlenberg County got a pair of insurance runs later to complete the 18-16 win. Owensboro struggled in the circle on Tuesday, as sophomore Kirsten Tindle allowed five earned runs and seven hits while striking out four in 3 ⅔ innings and Palmer allowed six earned runs—12 total—on nine hits, six walks and three strikeouts in 2 ⅓ innings pitched.
Palmer and Embry led the way at the plate with four RBIs each, Howard had three and Rhineburger, Tindle, Moorman and freshman Reese Boswell all had one each. Owensboro falls to 1-3 with the loss, as they will take a day off before looking to turn things around against Henderson County at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
