For the second straight night the Swift Current 57's were unable to get their bats rolling resulting in a second straight loss.

Going 1 for 16 at the plate with runner(s) on base, Swift Current was unable to take advantage of a quality start from James Smith in a 3-1 loss to Moose Jaw in 12 innings.

"It's just our approach," 57's Head Coach Joe Carnahan said about his teams recent struggles with the bat. "Our swings are getting too big. We are not having good approaches and keeping it simple for us to be productive. We have a lot of young hitters and that is something we are going to work on and improve throughout the year."

It was the second time in as many nights that the 57's had plenty of chances, but were simply unable to capitalize.

Eleven different times a Swift Current hitter stepped into the batting box with a runner in scoring position and failed to get a hit, having to settle for a 0 for 9 with two walks.

"A lot of these kids had two or three weeks off from seeing live pitching so a couple of them are still trying to just get their timing back," Carnahan said. "We have seen two good pitching performances back-to-back, and that is what we are going to see throughout the year. We just have to make adjustments."

What makes the loss sting even more for Swift Current was knowing they were unable to take advantage of a great pitching performance from starting pitcher James Smith.

The Brighton, Colorado native induced four double-plays and struck-out five batters, while going 9 innings and allowing just one run.

"James did a great job," said Carnahan. "He was getting hit a little bit in the start but we rolled a couple of double-plays for him. After that, he found the zone, was down in the zone and did a good job for us."

The lone run Smith gave up happened in the top of 2nd when Ben Dalke led off the inning with a solo home-run.

From the 3rd inning on, Smith only surrendered three singles the rest of the way.

"You always want to come out on top, especially when your pitchers give you performance like that," Carnahan said. "It's a long summer though, and I'm sure our hitters will pick up our pitchers more than once. We are sitting in a good spot, we just have to get to work and start getting better approaches at the plate."

With the game flying by and the 57's still trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th, Blake Adams provided new life for Swift Current.

After the first two batters to start the 8th inning were retired, Adams hammered the first pitch he saw to straight away left field for his team leading third home-run of the season, tying the game 1-1.

"He has been outstanding for us all year." Carnahan said of Adams. "The thing with him is absolute consistency. He has the same approach whether he in the dugout, in-the-hole, on-deck or at the plate. It is the same approach every single time and it is paying off for him."

Then with a chance to walk the game off in the bottom of the 101th, Adams returned to the plate and did everything he could to making things happen for Swift Current offensively.

After working a lead-off walk, the Taleton State University junior took second base on a wild pitch before stealing third base with just one out.

However, Mason Brown wound up hitting a ground ball to a drawn in short-stop, who held Adams at third and then threw out Brown.

Ben Andrews followed with a strike-out to end the threat.

In the top of the 12th, the Miller Express were able to put an end to their nine-inning scoreless streak.

After Trey Taylor gave up a lead-off single, Carnahan called for Layne Downing out of the bullpen.

Downing got his first batter to flyout to centre, but then issued a walk to put runners on first and second with one out.

The 57's closer was able to get the second out of the inning with a strike-out, but then with two out, Moose Jaw's Left Fielder Pat Katechis turned around a 2-2 pitch and hit a double to right-centre field to cash in both runners.

Swift Current tried to respond in the bottom half of the inning, getting runners and second and third with two away.

However, the game ended when Riley Campbell was called out on a bang-bang 6-3 groundout.

With the loss, the 57's fell to 4-2 on the season and into a three-way tie for first place in the East Division with Regina and Weyburn.

Swift Current will now hit the road on Saturday for a battle with the Weyburn Beavers.

"We have the potential to be a potent offence, but the biggest thing is, we can't just rely on hitting the ball over the fence," Carnahan said. "We have to be able to do the little things. We have to be able to bunt to move runners. We have to be able to score guys from third with less than two-out and just the little things like that. Once we are able to do that we are going to be a bit more successful."