The way third baseman Kelsie Batey and catcher Natalie Morgan see it, incredibly inconsistent hitting that has plagued Ozark all season has led to subpar Lady Tigers defense.
A couple errors in the infield and two off-target throws from the outfield factored in Ozark’s 5-3 setback at the hands of Republic on Tuesday.
The defense needed to be better, what with Ozark plating three runs or less for an 11th game. Coach Jimmy Nimmo’s bunch is 1-10 when scoring three runs or less.
However, Batey and Morgan won’t be complaining if they and their teammates see less reps in the batter’s box during practices in favor of more work on ground balls, pop flies and throws.
“We've been so focused on our hitting that we haven't focused on our defense and it's biting us on the butt,” Batey said. “We’ve had a lot of errors. We need to pick up our defense and start hitting the ball.”
“We did a lot of everything earlier in the season. But now that we're struggling with our hitting, we've been focusing on BP a lot,” Morgan said. “We do some ground ball work, but not as much as we did in the beginning, when we were solid.on defense.”
Ozark (17-11 overall and 4-5 in the COC) fell into a tie for sixth in the COC with Republic (16-13 and 4-5).
Neosho (24-6 and 8-1) has supplanted Ozark as the COC champion.
Ozark totaled seven runs in five COC losses to Willard, Neosho, Nixa, Carthage and Republic, yet scored 10 runs or more in each of its four COC wins versus Branson, Joplin and Webb City and Carl Junction. Ozark put up 13 runs against a 22-win Webb City team
Altogether, Ozark has 11 games with 10 runs or more.
Ozark received a two-run double from Batey and an RBI-double from Lyla Wood, but had just three hits with runners in scoring position. The hosts were shut out over the first three innings, stranded the bases loaded in the fifth and went down without a threat in the seventh.
“I think we're in our heads,” Batey said. “We don't have as much confidence as we did last year, We don't believe in ourselves like we did last year. We need to believe in each other.”
Credit Republic for pitching well against Audrey Carlton. The Ozark center fielder has 14 home runs, but was kept in check by repeated inside deliveries.
Ozark batters combined for eight strikeouts against Republic pitching that surrendered 53 runs over its eight previous COC games.
Morgan singled, was hit by a pitch and reached on an error.
“I stepped off the plate a little bit. You could see her curve come in on you,” Morgan said of Republic pitcher Piper Dishman. “I could see the 11/6 rotation. on her spin You see that coming and you want to turn on it early.”
Dishman, who beaned Ozark grad Jordyn Foley four times last year, also hit Kaylee Linnebur with a pitch.
Morgan, who joined Ozark’s 100-hit club last month, has a .512 batting average.
Batey also has consistently been good all season. She was 4-for-4 to hike her batting mark to .392. She hit .326 a year ago.
“My team has a lot of confidence in me, which is pushing me to be better," Batey said "With my team believing in me, that has made me believe in myself more.”
