BROWNSTOWN
A difficult night on defense and at the plate left the Brownstown Central baseball team with a 5-2 home loss to Jennings County on Thursday.
The Braves committed three errors and only mustered three hits through seven innings.
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“Unfortunately, we didn’t make the plays behind our pitchers, and our pitchers didn’t work ahead (in the count),” Braves coach Brandon Tormoehlen said. “We didn’t make plays, which led to scoring, and that’s the ballgame.”
The miscues added up to a night where the Panthers were able to score five runs with only three earned.
The Braves’ pitching also gave up eight hits and issued three walks.
The Panthers got off to a quick start by loading the bases in the first inning, but Braves starter Eli Brown was able to limit the damage to one run.
Jennings pitcher Josh Pettit hit a grounder to left field on the first pitch of the game. He later scored on an error on the infield.
Brown walked with the bases loaded but struck out Jayden Vandosal.
The Braves evened the score in the bottom of the inning when Pettit overthrew to the first baseman. That error allowed Isaac Horton, who earlier doubled to the outfield, to score from second.
The bases were loaded again in the third, but Brown worked out of the jam by getting Vandosal to hit back to him.
The Braves took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth when Jalen Tiemeyer hit a double to center field. Pinch runner Nathan Koch scored on the hit.
The Panthers tied it up on an error in the fifth and then took advantage of the Braves’ mistakes and scored three runs in the sixth inning.
The inning started when Ian Sawyer reached on an error. He made it to third on a stolen base and wild pitch. Pettit was hit by a pitch and then stole second. That’s when Cody Wilson hit Sawyer, and Pettit ran home on a double to the left field corner. Jakob Kirby then singled to knock in Duncan Rowda.
Tormoehlen was satisfied his pitchers were able to work out of a few bases-loaded jams. The Braves used Brown, Wineinger and Horton in the game.
“We have some experience coming back on the mound, and they’ve been in those situations,” he said. “Unfortunately, they got themselves into it by not working ahead and not finishing hitters when they did get ahead.”
The Braves will play at Seymour on Monday.
Tormoehlen said nothing about Thursday’s game will change the team’s approach to preparation, but he would like to see them clean up their defensive play.
“We’re going to continue to do what we do every day and will go back to work tomorrow,” he said. “Baseball is a game of reps, and we just didn’t have it tonight, but we will have to clean it up."