Dalana Gay hit a ball out of the yard for the second time this week, but it wasn’t enough.

After losing to district opponent Silex on Tuesday, Van-Far lost 7-3 to district foe Community R-6 despite three runners crossing the plate in the first inning on a Gay home run — her second of the year after hitting one Monday at Wellsville-Middletown. Gay pitched the first 5⅓ innings as well but was taken out after the Lady Trojans tied the game in the fifth inning before taking the lead for good in the sixth inning. 

Gay finished with three RBI, Mara Jensen went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and Carmen Wilburn had two walks. Gay allowed four earned runs through her innings while allowing seven hits and Jensen gave up one hit the rest of the way.

Madelynn Caldwell reached on an error to lead off the game and then Mara Jensen walked to set up for Gay’s home run. The Lady Indians had three singles following the first inning but didn’t have their biggest threat to score until a bases-loaded nobody out situation while down four runs. A pop out and two strikeouts against Community’s Paige Painter ended the game.

Van-Far falls behind early in 16-0 loss to state-ranked Silex

Van-Far ran into the second buzzsaw in three games.

The Lady Indians were shut down by a perfect performance by Bowling Green’s Megan Graver and were shut out 16-0 in five innings on Tuesday at home to another Eastern Missouri Conference foe, Class 1 No. 4 Silex. Carmen Wilburn had a first-inning and Layla Ogden had a fifth-inning double for the Lady Indians’ only hits against Karlie Ellis, who struck out nine.

Ellis had two RBI and two doubles to complement Maddy Hall’s three-RBI home run in the first inning. Hall went deep against Dalana Gay, who gave the ball to Mara Jensen in the second inning.

The early pitching change didn’t help as Silex (11-8, 5-2 EMO) had a 10-0 lead against Van-Far (1-7 EMO) after two innings.

Van-Far (4-13) visits Marion County (3-11) on Monday.