BROWSNTOWN
Brownstown Central’s baseball team scored in five different innings and topped Trinity Lutheran 11-1 on the Braves’ diamond Monday.
The game was stopped in the bottom of the sixth because of the 10-run rule.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Braves Coach Brandon Tormoehlen liked the way his team swung the bats as eight players shared the 12 hits. Six of them combined to drive in nine runs, and seven of them scored runs.
“We talked before the game just about trying to stay within our approach and staying in balance and trying to hit hard ground balls, hard line drives up the middle and we were able to do that tonight,” Tormoehlen said. “We knew were going to face a pretty good arm in (Lawson) Woods and our guys came ready to play.”
The Braves took advantage of wildness on the part of Woods, who hit Isaiah Wineinger and Seth Borden back-to-back, and Lucas Hines walked to load the bases with no outs.
Matthew Garland hit a sacrifice fly, and Jake Pauley drove in a run with a hit, and Matthew Bell got an RBI on a ground out.
Lucas singled in the second inning to drive in Clay Chastain, who had walked, and Hines scored on a wild pitch for a 5-0 lead.
The Cougars scored in the third inning when Hunter Morgan drew a walk. He advanced on a hit by Chris Mau and scored on another hit by Jake Mau, but a fielder’s choice and two strike outs kept the Cougars from getting any more runs.
Trinity coach Ben Kleber said it was nice to see the bottom of the order come through with hits.
“The bottom went up there with some confidence, and swung the bat and that’s what we’re looking for, to get us back to the top,” Kleber said. “We’ve just got to get a big hit. It’s 5-1 there, runner on third, one out and you make it 6-2, and find a way to put the ball in play.
“You get runners on second and third, and a big knock there and you’re looking at 7-3, 7-4, that’s a lot different than 7-1. We’ve just got to find someone that wants to get that big hit. They’ll get there. I know our confidence is down a little bit right now but we’ll get it back where it needs to be.”
The only other hit the Cougars got was a single by Tyler Goecker in the fifth inning.
The Braves continued to swing hot bats as Chastain and Wineinger had hits in the fourth and scored runs, Pauley collected his third hit in the fifth and scored on a hit by Bell.
Borden led off the sixth with a single. Jalen Tiemeyer walked and Nathan Koch singled to drive in Borden, and Bell got his second hit of the night to drive in two runs.
Bell had four RBIs, Pauley had three hits, and Wineinger, Borden, Hines and Chastain scored two runs each.
Borden went the first five innings on the mound and had eight strike outs to go along with two walks, three hits and one earned run.
“Seth came out and was throwing strikes and working ahead,” Tormoehlen said. “He’s only had two starts all year, and he’s had two starts where he looked really well. I was proud to see him come out and be able to repeat what he did against Providence last week.”
Goecker was the only Cougar to get on base twice, with a hit and a fielder’s choice.
Prior to this game, the Braves completed a conference game against Corydon Central and lost 2-1 to finish 4-5 in the Mid-Southern.
Eli Brown scored the Braves’ run in the sixth, and he was driven in by Borden.
The Braves had only two hits, by Wineinger and Horton.
The Braves and Cougars will both play in sectionals Wednesday.
Brownstown (19-7) will play Scottsburg in the 5:30 p.m. game at North Harrison, and Trinity (10-11) will play the host team in the second game of the West Washington Sectional.
Tormoehlen likes where his team is at going into the tournament.
“We’ve still got some work to do,” Tormoehlen said. “We’ll come back to practice (today) and get ready for sectionals. We’re starting to put it together. I thought our base running was pretty solid, we were getting good reads off the bat. We had one bad hop there, but for the most part we were making plays, playing catch, and pitching was solid and hitting was solid.”
Kleber said his team needs to get back to playing with confidence.
“With Austin (Saturday) we faced a kid that was solid. Tonight, Seth throws the ball really well,” Kleber said. “We knew that. We’ve got to be ready to attack the zone and stop coming with so many excuses. We’ll get back to it (today), attacking the fastball. The good thing is, these two caliber pitchers we saw we’re not going to see that (in sectional).
“That’s all right, that’s what we’re getting ready for. We’re looking further beyond the sectional. Those are they type kids we’d see in the regional if we’re lucky enough to get there. This was good preparation for us.”