Not much went to plan for Community R-6 on Wednesday.

Community R-6 vs Paris Photo Gallery

The Lady Trojans hosted Paris for the second time in a few days after winning 6-5 on home field over the weekend but lost the rematch to their district foe 6-3. Four Community errors in the fourth inning stung as Paris took a 5-3 lead, responding to a three-RBI home run by Myla Carroll in the second inning.

Head coach Kendra Murphy said the loss can be simply explained by errors and strikeouts with runners in scoring position. Infield errors allowed Paris (9-3) to extend the fourth inning with two outs and more errors erased the Lady Trojans’ lead. Emma Ashenfelter hit a hard ground ball that ricocheted off an infielder and then another error allowed all three runners to score.

“A lot of it is mental,” Murphy said. “The errors that we’re making right now, especially tonight, were timid errors. I like to talk about being aggressive and making an error because you’re going all out for a ball. I don’t feel like the errors made tonight had anything to do with that. On defense, you have to be the aggressor. When you sit back and let the ball do whatever the ball wants to do, bad things happen.”

Community (9-4) finished with eight hits compared with the seven by Paris. The Lady Trojans had scoring opportunities after losing the lead but couldn’t come through with runners on base. 

Reese Sutton finished with a line of seven innings with eight hits, seven strikeouts and two earned runs. Three of those strikeouts happened after two Community runners reached base with no outs in the sixth inning. 

“We had a higher strike zone than we are used to,” Murphy said. “Our game plan is to lay off the high pitch, so when it’s being called by the umpire, that hurts our game plan. More so than that, we were swinging out of our shoes with two strikes instead of choking and worrying about putting the ball in play.”

Rylee Rafferty came close to a home run in the seventh inning, but the long fly ball was caught by a jumping center fielder Sophia Crusha. Rafferty, along with six other Lady Trojans, had at least one hit. Jocelyn Curtis — who had a pitching line of seven innings, seven hits, six strikeouts, three earned runs and three walks — finished 2-for-4, and Amy McCurdy extended her hitting streak to 14 games.

Carroll made the only dent into the scoreboard with her home run that gave Community the 3-1 lead in the second inning. It was the freshman’s first career varsity home run following a homer during the summer and was the team’s first home run of the season. 

“She stuck with the game plan,” Murphy said. “She hunted low and hit her pitch. We know she has that power. She’s got a few things that need corrected with her swing that we’ve been working on. When she does those things right, she hit the ball really well last night too (in a 14-8 win at Slater).”

Community (3-1 CAC) plays at Central Activities Conference foe Sturgeon (0-7, 0-2 CAC) at 5 p.m. today.