By TR HARLAN

The Chesterton softball team has hit a collective slump offensively.

The Trojans picked up just three hits Friday afternoon and fell for the second straight game as Lowell left town with a 4-1 non-conference victory.

“It’s very similar to Thursday night (loss at Crown Point),” Chesterton coach LouAnn Hopson said. “Clearly we made some mistakes, but mostly we just won’t make adjustments in the batter’s box. We’re standing right in the same spot in the box no matter where the pitch is or who’s throwing it.

“I guess it’s just stubbornness.”

The Trojans scored the game’s first run as Alexis Paz worked Lowell starter Jacki Fletcher for a leadoff walk. She advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sam Gross and scored on Catie Armstrong’s double to left field.

Lowell tied the game in the fourth inning when Lauren Wells beat out an infield single. Becca Nida’s sacrifice bunt moved her to second. A passed ball moved Wells to third and she scored on a wild pitch.

The Red Devils took the lead in the fifth inning after a one-out walk to Nicole Sgouroudis. She moved to second when Fletcher reached on an error and scored on back-to-back wild pitches.

“(Chesterton starter) Alexis (Paz) didn’t pitch poorly, she just made a couple of mistakes with runners in scoring position,” Hopson said. “You can’t wild pitch two runs in.”

Fletcher scored to make it 3-1 on Nida’s double to right-center field.

Lowell put the finishing touches on the victory with one more run in the seventh inning. Back-to-back singles by Fletcher and Nida were followed by a two-out single from Megan Blanowski to set the final score.

“We didn’t make a lot of errors or anything, but there were things that should have been stopped that weren’t,” Hopson said. “We’re not making the rally-killing play that we were making a few weeks ago.”

The Trojans return to the field on Monday when they travel to Highland for a 4:30 p.m. start.

Lowell 4, Chesterton 1

AT CHESTERTON

SCORING BY INNINGS

Lowell 000 120 1 – 4 9 0

Chesterton 100 000 0 – 1 3 1

2B – Kristina Kuzma, Nina Ioakimidis, Becca Nida (L); Catie Armstrong (C). Pitching Summary – Lowell – Jacki Fletcher (4 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K), Kaitlyn Bolanowski (1 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K), Alyssa Reed (2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K); Chesterton – Alexis Paz (7 IP, 9 H, 1 BB, 3 K). WP – Fletcher. LP – Paz.

Posted 5/12/2008