For The Tribune
BROWNSTOWN
The Brownstown Central baseball team scored one run on a wild pitch and another on a fielder’s choice to defeat Bedford North Lawrence 2-1 on the Braves’ diamond Tuesday afternoon.
The Stars scored their lone run in the first inning when Blake Fisher singled, stole second, advanced to third on an infield out and scored on an error.
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The Braves were held to one hit through four innings before Clayton Barger led off the fifth inning with a double into left-center field, then advanced to third and scored on wild pitches.
Seth Borden led off the sixth inning by getting hit by a pitch. He moved to second on a single by Ian Martin. Matthew Bell sacrificed the runners to third and second base respectively.
Isaac Horton grounded to the first baseman, who threw home but his throw was late and Borden slid head first with the winning run.
The Braves missed an excellent scoring opportunity in the third inning when with two out, Wineinger drew a walk and Borden singled down the third-base line but the next batter flied out to end the threat.
The only other base runner the Braves had threw the first five inning was Lucas Hines, who was hit by a pitch in the second inning.
Braves coach Brandon Tormoehlen was pleased with the win, and especially happy with the way Matthew Bell, Borden and Wineinger pitched. Bell and Borden each pitched three innings and Wineinger threw the seventh and they combined to allow two hits, strike out five and walk three.
“Bell and Borden pitched well, and Wineinger came in and threw strikes and was able to close it out for us,” Tormoehlen said. “For the most part we didn’t walk anybody.
“We made some plays defensively behind them. We talked to the guys before the game about just making the routine play and kind of controlling what they could control and they did that tonight.”
The Stars had a runner advance to second in the third inning, a runner made it to third in the fifth, and another runner advanced to second in the sixth. BC pitchers came up with strike outs to end the threats in those innings.
Tormoehlen said of BNL’s run in the first inning, “I think that was just nerves. That was one of our first baseman’s (Isaac Horton) first starts. He’s a sophomore there so he was a little bit nervous. One of our senior first baseman was at the academic bowl. That’s the great thing about baseball. He had a shaky start and he ended up getting the winning RBI. He came in in a big spot and was able to put the ball in play and get us a run. He did a great job bouncing back there.
“We talk to our guys a lot about putting pressure on the defense and we did that tonight. We ran hard and it worked out for us. (Barger) did a really good job on a dirt-ball read. We work on that in practice, and he did a really nice job advancing to third and was able to score on a wild pitch.
“The little things we work on. We’ve been working on it all year and it paid off for us tonight.”
Tormoehlen said he is pleased his team is 4-2.
“As young as we are, as inexperienced we are, if you’d have told me ‘you’re going to play Bedford and Seymour and North Harrison and those guys and, you’re going to be 4-2, I would have taken it,” he said.
The Braves will travel to Austin on Thursday.