ROLAND — Many of the statistics used in baseball and softball are abbreviated with three letters. For example, RBI stand for Run Batted In and ERA for Earned Run Average.
It is likely that, in the world of sports number crunchers, no three-letter stat aggravates coaches more LOB, or Left On Base.
Friday it was exactly that — LOB — that cost Perry a pair of wins in the Roland-Story Kiwanis Tournament. The Jayettes (16-6) left eight runners on the bags in a 4-1 loss to North Polk (13-6) in their first game, then stranded seven more in suffering a 2-1 loss to South Hamilton (10-5) in their second contest.
Perry’s lone runs — in the bottom of the seventh against North Polk and in the bottom of the first against South Hamilton — came on solo home runs from Jo Diw. The junior is tied for fourth among all classes with 10 homers and trails only Ballard’s Maggie Larson (11) in Class 4A; Boone eighth-grader Emma Dighton has nine dingers.
North Polk was beaten by Perry, 4-2, in Alleman May 23, but earned revenge by scoring twice in the second and again in the sixth innings.
Emma Olejniczak was tagged for four runs (three earned) on seven hits and a walk in six innings. She finished with nine strikeouts. Sid Vancil allowed one hit in pitching the seventh.
Vancil had two singles and stole two bases for Perry, with singles from Olejniczak and Gabby West the remainder of the Perry offense.
Ellie Owen had two double and Paige Sandberg a two-run single for the Comets.
Sophie Swygman collected the win after allowing just one run on five hits and two walks in seven frames. She tallied three strikeouts.
South Hamilton scored in the top of the first for a quick 1-0 lead in the second game, but Diw launched her 10th round-tripper of the season to lead off the bottom of the frame and tie the game. A Hawk run in the fifth provided the final margin, as Perry — as in the first game — kept producing base runners and kept failing to send them home.
Olejniczak went all seven innings on the rubber, surrendering two runs (one earned) on two hits and three walks while fanning seven.
Diw added a single to her homer and stole a base, with Olejniczak 2-for-3 with a steal. Vancil, Kruger, Gabby West and Brooke Huntington each had hits for the Jayettes.
Perry plays Gilbert at 2:30 on the South Field today, then closes the tourney with an 8 p.m. battle against Roland-Story on the North Field.
