For The Tribune

BROWNSTOWN

With a pair of strikes, Brownstown Central’s Matt Garland drove a pitch to right-center field to bat in the winning run in extra innings Thursday night.

Garland’s RBI single scored Isaiah Wineinger to give the Braves ( 2-1 MSC) a 6-5 walk off win against Eastern (Pekin) in nine innings.

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“He’s has been swinging (the bat) well,” Braves coach Brandon Tormoehlen said of Garland. “He worked really hard in the fall and it’s starting to pay off for him. He can put the ball in play.”

The ninth inning began when Gus Hogan hit a single to right field but slipped as he thought about going to second base, and was thrown out.

Wineinger and Ian Martin were both hit by a pitch and Seth Borden flew out in between.

That’s when Garland worked a 2-2 count and drove the ball for the win.

The Musketeers got off to a quick start, scoring three runs in the first inning. The inning started when Landon Snelling was hit by a pitch and both Snyder Pennington and Ryan Adamson singled to set up a sacrifice bunt from Leif Edlin, which scored two runs.

Rhett Pennington singled in a run to give the Musketeers the 3-0 advantage.

The Braves answered right back by scoring two runs in the bottom half of the first when Garland hit a ball to right center to score Borden and Matthew Bell, who was pinch running for Ian Martin.

Brownstown tied the game at three when Clayton Barger scored on a sacrifice bunt from Winenger.

The Braves moved ahead in the third inning when Barger doubled to right field and scored Stuart Hayden to bring the score 4-3 in favor of the Braves.

Luke Shelton tacked on another run for the Braves when he singled to center field and plated Jalen Tiemeyer.

That’s when both teams’ bats quieted and Tormoehlen said it was due to solid pitching on both sides. Eli Brown relieved Wineinger in the first inning and pitched the remaining eight innings for the Braves, only giving up two runs,

He said the pitching from Easter was difficult as they mixed different pitches to Braves batters.

“Both pitchers, they did did a great job and mixed in some off speed stuff,” he said. “It was a great, competitive game.”

The Braves looked as though they were going to cruise to victory until the Musketeers put together a string of hits to tie the game in the sixth inning.

Snyder Pennington doubled in Cauy Motsinger and Snelling.

The Braves were unable to answer in the bottom half of the sixth and neither team scored in the seventh or the eighth.

Brown was able to retire the Musketeers in order in the ninth to set up Garland’s walk off hit.

Tormoehlen didn’t like the number of errors the Braves committed and hopes to work to clean up the issues. The Braves committed three on the night, which led to two of the runs for the Musketeers.

“We have to be more aggressive from a defensive standpoint,” he said. “We have to do a better job of challenging hitters.”