The Shelbyville Central Golden Eaglettes struggled to string together hits in Sunday’s matinee home loss to District 9-AAAA foe, Columbia Central, 4-2.

Bailey Lovell went seven complete innings in the circle for the Lady Lions, allowing only four hits while striking out 14 batters with one walk on 103 pitches. She did give up a home run, but one of the two runs given up was unearned. 

Lilly Brown hit that home run for the Eaglettes, driving in Sammie Brown to cut the Lady Lions’ lead in half, 4-2, in the sixth inning. Brown also tallied a double, finishing 2-3 on the day with two RBI.

Sammie Brown and Ja’Mya Anderson collected the only other hits for the Eaglettes, but on the whole, the lineup never really got going against Lovell.

Alissa Robb got the nod in the circle for the hosts, going 3.2 innings with three strikeouts and three walks while giving up seven hits on 86 pitches. Of the four runs Columbia Central scored against Robb, only one was earned as the Eaglettes committed three errors on the day She also hit two batters.

Sammie Brown came in to finish out the fourth inning, and after she finished the seventh inning, she had struck out four batters with only one walk and had only given up one hit on 45 pitches.

The Lady Lions left 11 runners stranded on base offensively, but three-hole hitter Ruthie Lindsey led Columbia Central with three hits, going 3-3 – all singles – with a walk and a run scored. The top-four hitters in the visitor’s order accounted for seven of their eight hits on the day. 

The Golden Eaglettes fall to 2-6 (0-3) with their next game coming at home against Lincoln County on Tuesday in another key District 9-AAAA matchup.