Defensive miscues caused the Talawanda Brave softball team to drop both games of a non-conference doubleheader against the Arcanum High School Trojans April 23 at Talawanda High School. 

The visiting Trojans from the Western Ohio Athletic Conference entered the doubleheader riding a 12-game winning streak. 

After giving up a pair of runs in the second inning, Talawanda quickly responded, tying the game thanks to a run scored by sophomore Molly Van Gordon, followed by an RBI from senior Brooklyn Conrad. In the same inning, a hit from junior Halee McDade that brought Conrad home gave the Brave a 3-2 lead.

Defensive errors proved costly for the Brave starting in the third inning. Talawanda throwing errors allowed Arcanum to score three runs and take a 5-3 lead. Another defensive error allowed Arcanum sophomore Emilie Fout to score, increasing the Trojan’s lead 6-3.

The Brave capitalized on a defensive error in the bottom of the fourth as junior Kaelyn Wright scored after an overthrow of second base by Arcanum. 

Following a scoreless top of the fifth inning, Talawanda scored one final run, dropping the first game by a final score of 6-5. 

After the first game, Head Coach Scott Davie told his team to quickly turn its focus to the second game. “Despite some of the mistakes that we made, we gotta turn the page and get ready, that’s what I told them,” Davie said. 

Game two started with a scoreless first inning followed by a pair of run scoring hits from Arcanum juniors Kaitlyn Toy and Paige Burrell to take an early 2-0 lead. 

Much like game one, defensive mishaps once again proved costly for Talawanda as Arcanum scored seven runs in the third inning to take a commanding 9-0 lead. The Brave broke the shutout in the fifth inning thanks to an RBI from junior Shelby Knott. It wasn’t enough and Talawanda fell in game two by a final score of  9-1. 

“I think in the first inning there were some errors and that kind of threw everything off,” Talawanda’s McKenna Weekley said following game two. “Our energy kind of dropped and we were trying to get it back up the whole game.” 

Davie also cited the defensive errors as something the team can work on in the future. “We were wearing the defensive mistakes on our sleeves when we went to bat,” Davie said. “The other thing we talked about [in the huddle] was understanding how to separate a bad defensive half inning with an offensive half inning.” 

Talawanda’s record stands at 12-6 (8-2 SWOC) and plays at Harrison at 5 p.m. Friday, April 29. On May 2, the team travels to Ross High School.