Brownstown Central’s baseball team took advantage of its base-running opportunities to defeat Seymour 9-3 Monday afternoon on Law Enforcement Appreciation Night at American Legion Field.
The Braves collected 10 hits, received six walks, had three of its batters hit by pitches and scored two runs in the first, fourth, fifth and seventh innings.
Brownstown didn’t wait long to get its offense rolling, as Seth Borden was safe on a fielder’s choice, Isaac Horton singled, Jalen Tiemeyer squeezed Borden home and Matthew Garland singled to bring in Horton in the top of the first.
The Owls came right back in the bottom of the first when R.J. Kleber doubled and later scored on a single by Matthew Moore for a 2-1 score.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryBorden led off the third with a walk and scored on a hit by Matthew Bell, and in the fourth inning, Clayton Barger walked, Isaiah Wineinger singled and both scored on a single by Horton to take a 5-1 lead.
Wineinger had an RBI single in the fifth, and Horton had a two-run single in the seventh.
Takumi Nishiwaki walked and scored on a sacrifice fly in the fifth and Jake Roberts homered over the fence in left field in the seventh to complete Seymour’s scoring.
Bell, a senior left-hander, pitched the first five innings to pick up the win. He allowed three hits, struck out three and didn’t walk any.
“(Bell) did well,” Braves coach Brandon Tormoehlen said. “He threw well against Floyd last Tuesday. He just does a nice job of mixing up his pitches. He has been able to throw two or three different types of pitches for strikes, and he has been effective that way.
“We try to get him where he’s two times through the lineup and then hand it over to somebody else. He has done that both of his outings, and he has done a nice job.”
Owls coach Jeremy Richey said Bell did a good job on the mound.
“I thought Bell mixed it up really well against us and kept us off-balance,” he said. “It was really a struggle for us offensively.”
Richey said the Braves played well.
“They played very well tonight. I was impressed with their toughness,” he said. “Their kids went up there and they swung the bats with a lot of confidence. We did not help ourselves. We had nine walks or hit batsmen. We had a whole lot of times we were behind in the count. When they knew what was coming, they didn’t miss it very often.
“We’ve got to get back to throwing strikes. They ended up getting 10 hits, but a lot of them were when they were ahead in the count.”
Roberts led the SHS offense with the double and home run. It was the Owls’ second homer of the season.
Tormoehlen liked the way his team hit the ball, as Horton led the way with four hits, while Wineinger had two, and four other batters had one hit each.
“We’ve been struggling,” Tormoehlen said. “I was hoping we would be able to swing it, and it all kind of came together tonight. Our guys did a nice job. They were aggressive in hitter’s counts, and they did a nice job getting on base.”
Eight of the nine BC batters had either a hit or a walk, Horton and Tiemeyer both had two RBI and four players scored two runs each.
Both teams will be home Thursday with the Braves (2-1) facing Orleans and the Owls (1-1) hosting Columbus East.