Brownstown Central’s Ethan Garland watches a low pitch go by in the second inning of the second game at Trinity Lutheran Saturday. Garland had five hits and seven RBIs on the day as the Braves won both games.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Brownstown Central’s Trent Lowery scores a run in the second inning of the second game at Trinity Lutheran on Saturday. Covering the plate is Trinity pitcher Drake Goodpaster. Lowery scored three runs as the Braves won this game 16-7.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Trinity Lutheran’s Nathan Finke follows through on a swing against Brownstown Central Saturday. The Braves catcher is Dalton Reedy.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Lane Pendleton pitches to a Trinity batter Saturday. Pendleton pitched four innings and had three strike outs.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Trinity Lutheran’s Chase Bode pitches to a Brownstown batter in the second game Saturday. Bode allowed one run, and he had a hit and an RBI in this game.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
The Brownstown Central baseball team used big innings in both games of a doubleheader to defeat Trinity Lutheran 14-3 and 16-7 Saturday at Alf Snyder Field.
Trinity Coach Ben Kleber summed it up.
“We had 15 runs score on walks or hit batters, and 13 unearned runs. You start looking at things that way it’s rough on your pitchers,” he said.
“On the flip side, they have attack hitters, but I’ve got to figure out how to get us ready to play,” Kleber added. “We weren’t just ready to play today. All the credit to Brownstown. After those walks, they got big hits that led to runs. They did the job to get runs across. They’re a good baseball team.”
“I’ve got to figure out a way to get these guys to pitch with a little more confidence.”
In the opener, the Braves scored five runs in the first inning and six runs in the third, and in the nightcap the Braves sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning and seven scored, and 10 players batted in the sixth and five scored.
Ethan Garland had the hot bat for the Braves in the opener with a double, a triple and five RBIs.
Trent Lowery, Dalton Reedy and Preston Garrison all had hits and RBIs. Chick Tiemeyer, Grayson Cassidy and Grant Killey also had RBIs, and Lowery scored three runs, and Tiemeyer, Jaxson Johnson, Cassidy and Killey scored two runs apiece.
Jackson Trueblood and Chase Bode both had two hits for the Cougars.
Garland stayed hot for the Braves in the second game with a double and two singles and he had two RBIs.
Pierson Wheeler and Garrison had two-run singles in the second, and Tiemeyer also had two RBIs in this game. Lowery scored three runs, and Killey and Reedy both scored two runs.
Killey and Keaton Burcham-Jones had RBI doubles in the sixth inning.
Goodpaster had two hits and three RBIs, and Trueblood had a single and triple and an RBI in the second game.
Garland had five hits, seven RBIs and he scored two runs for the day, and Garrison had three hits and three RBIs.
Brownstown coach Duane Higgs spoke on the offensive output recently for the Braves.
“Our approach at the plate has been much better. Last Saturday (April 13) I wasn’t happy with our approach at the plate. When you don’t play for 15 days it’s hard to stay in that routine.
“Now we play seven games in eight days so there shouldn’t be any excuses for that rustiness. So now I feel we’re knocking off our at bats, one-through-nine. We have a lot of depth one-through-nine, there is not a weak out in there.
“To have guys on the bench that are just as good as the starters says a lot about our depth right now.”
The Braves (7-4) have won five in a row and Higgs said his team is headed in the right direction.
“We’ve still got to clean us some things on defense. We made a couple of mistakes today that just kind of drives me crazy. But at the end of the day its still April 20 and we want to be peaking in about five weeks.”
Trueblood had four hits, and Goodpaster and Bode both had three hits for Trinity for the day.
Kleber said, “We had some kids hit the ball. We’re at a tough stretch in our schedule. We’re playing some really good ball clubs. We’re cutting the strikeouts down, we’re hitting the ball in play. We’ve just got to find a way to stop letting so many fastballs go by and I’ve got to figure out a way to get us more aggressive at the plate and ready to hit when it’s our turn to hit.”
The Cougars are 1-8 and will host Scottsburg Tuesday. Brownstown will travel to North Harrison Monday for a matchup at 5:30 p.m.
First game
Brownstown; 14
Trinity; 3
Brownstown hits: 2-Ethan Garland, 1-Jaxson Johnson, Trent Lowry, Lane Pendleton, Dalton Reedy, Preston garrison; 2B-Killey, 3B-Killey; RBIs- 5-Garland, 1-Chick Tiemeyer, Lowry, Grayson Cassidy, Killey, Reddy, Garrison; runs 3-Lowry, 2-Tiemeyer, Cassidy, Killey, Johnson, 1-Garland, Reedy, Garrison
Trinity hits: 2-Jackson Trueblood, Chase Bode, 1-Drake Goodpaster; RBIs- Bode, Kowan Gross; runs-Trueblood, Goodpaster, Nathan Finke
Pitching: Brownstown- Reedy 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K, 1 W; Pierson Wheeler 2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 4 K, 1 W; Johnson 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 K 0 W
Second game
Brownstown;16
Trinity; 7
Brownstown hits: 3- Garland, 2-Garrison, 1-Tiemeyer, Lowery, Wheeler, Trueblood, Johnson, Pendleton, Keaton Burcham-Jones, Reddy. 2B- Pendleton, Burcham-Jones; RBI’s- 2-Tiemeyer, Garland, Wheeler, Garrison, 1-Lowrey, Johnson, Pendelton, Reedy, Burcham-Jones; runs: 3-Lowrey, 2-Reedy, Garrison, Wheeler, Killey, 1-Tiemeyer, Garland, Brody Short, Johnson, Burcham-Jones
Trinity: hits: 2-Trueblood, Goospaster, 1-Bode; 3b-Trueblood; RBIs- 3-Goodpaster, 1-Peyton Pollert, Trueblood, Bode; runs- 2-Bode Brooks, 1-Pollert, Levi Pottschmidt, Kade Gillaspy, Gross, Trueblood
Pitching: BC-Pendleton 4 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 3 K, 1 W; Killey 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 K 4W, Johnson 2 IP, 4 R, 3 H, 4 K, 4 W; TL- Goodpaster 1.2 IP, 8 R, 3 H, 3 K, 1 W, Bode 2.1 IP, 6 H 7 R, 2 K,