BROWNSTOWN
Coach Brandon Tormoehlen says his Brownstown Central baseball team can’t afford to make mistakes like it did Monday against Silver Creek and expect to win.
“We just made too many mistakes,” he said of the 5-1 loss that allowed the Dragons to finish unbeaten in the Mid-Southern Conference at 9-0.
“When you’re playing the third-ranked team (Class 3A) in the state you can’t go out and play like that. They hit a 1-2 (count) home run there to put the game out of reach.”
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The Dragons (20-2) held a 3-1 lead entering the top of the seventh when Bryan Whitt was safe on an error and Sam Barnett followed with a home run to complete the scoring.
Barnett also led off the game with a home run, and those were the only two earned runs the Dragons scored as BC made five errors.
The Braves tied the game in the bottom of the second when Matthew Garland led off with a single, he was sacrificed to second by Stuart Hayden, and moved to third on a single by Lucas Hines. The Braves then executed a suicide squeeze as Clayton Barger bunted back toward the mound and Garland scored.
The Braves had several other scoring opportunities as the fifth inning was the only inning they were retired in order.
Seth Borden led off the first with a double, but a double play ended the threat. Borden led off the third with a walk, Garland doubled and Barger walked in the fourth, but they were stranded as another strike out ended that threat.
Ian Martin and Garland singled in the sixth, and Isaac Horton walked in the seventh, but the Braves hit into double plays in both of those innings.
“We didn’t execute our bunt game at all,” Tormoehlen said. “We had too many fielding errors. We put them in too many hitters’ counts.
“I’m very disappointed on how we executed the game. We had some good at bats. We had some guys that went out and played hard. We had base-running mistakes. We had mistakes all the way around. It’s disappointing considering we’re 8-10 days away from the (sectional) tournament. We’re still making mistakes that we were making the first week of the season.”
Garland led the offense by going 3-for-3, including a double, and he scored one run. Borden was the only other Braves to reach base twice with a hit and a walk. The Braves struck out eight times, drew four walks and hit into three double plays.
The Braves (12-10) will travel to Providence today.
“They are ranked sixth. They are a solid ball club so it will be interesting to see how we bounced back,” Tormoehlen said.