Putting the ball in play was a struggle for Community R-6 on Friday at home.

Community R-6 vs Elsberry Photo Gallery

Community R-6 struck out 16 times in a 5-3 loss to Elsberry, which is the second-most times head coach Joel Krato said a Trojans team of his has struck out. 

Krato said it was simply a bad game at the plate for Community (3-4). The Trojans regularly swung at pitches they should have taken and took pitches at times they should have been swinging. He said seven of the strikeouts were looking.

“They weren’t throwing hard,” Krato said. “It’s unfortunate because we have guys going up there and getting caught looking. If I don’t give a take sign, we were swinging at anything within a barn door of home plate. When I do give the take sign, then we get stuck behind 0-1 and then we just don’t swing the bat. We just don’t swing the rest of the bat.”

Community’s approach just has to be better and has to be better aware of the situation, Krato said. For example, the Trojans shouldn’t be swinging 3-0 when he relays the take sign. The focus should be reaching base or at least putting the ball in play.

The Trojans did have plenty of baserunners throughout the game. Colin Phillips and Tanner Holland had 10 and six strikeouts, respectively, for Elsberry (2-6) but also walked four batters each and hit two batters each. Community had the bases loaded in four straight innings but left the bases loaded in three of those innings and 13 straight outs resulted in a strikeout during that stretch of the game.

“We don’t have to do too much,” Krato said. “We need baserunners. We don’t have to force anything. We’re just trying to hit a home run every time for some reason.”

There were moments Community didn’t do too much and thrived from it, including when Matthew Utterback and Houston Hogan laid down bunts to score runs. Utterback bunt scored one run in the fourth inning and then Hogan’s bunt scored two runs in the fifth inning to make it 4-3.

The strikeouts had an uptick after Community batters went five straight games without striking at least 10 times. Conversely, Community pitchers went into Friday’s game punching out 61 batters in 40⅔ innings. The Trojans lost a 2-1 pitcher’s duel at Central Activities Conference foe Slater and were led by Cooper Rohan’s 11 strikeouts in 6⅓ innings. They won 9-7 at Paris when Drake Welch struck out eight in six innings and won 15-8 at Bowling Green when Kyler Swaim and Rohan combined to strike out nine in seven innings

Swaim had four strikeouts in 6⅔ innings against Elsberry but put together a solid line with six hits, four earned runs and four walks. He picked off two baserunners and did “exactly” what he needed to do, according to Krato.

“Kyler is a pitch-to-contact guy, and they go up swinging,” Krato said. “They put a lot of balls in play, but as a soft-throwing lefty, he was able to keep them out front. They were end-capping a lot of balls so they hit some balls to second and left field.”

Community (0-1 CAC) hosts conference foe Sturgeon (5-3, 3-0 CAC) at 5 p.m. today in the second of five straight home games for the Trojans.