SELLERSBURG
Stringing together three hits with two outs in the top of the first inning, Brownstown Central’s baseball team was able to bring in one run.
That, however, wound up being the sole Brave crossing the plate in Thursday’s Class 3A Silver Creek Sectional game against Salem.
The Lions tied the game in the bottom of the second, took the lead in the fourth and added two more runs in the sixth for a 4-1 win to advance to tonight’s semifinal game against the winner of Thursday’s second game between Madison and North Harrison.
Brownstown finished the season with a 12-14 record.
“Offensively, we came out, we got a few hits,” Braves coach Brandon Tormoehlen said.
“Unfortunately, we started a little late. It was two outs when we started doing all of that stuff. If we could have started off a little sooner, maybe we would have been able to scratch a few more across.”
He credited Salem freshman pitcher Joshua Burton, who from the second inning on struck out nine Braves and only gave up one more hit.
“He settled in and did a good job, kept us off balance for the rest of the night, really,” Tormoehlen said.
Levi Stahl hit a two-out double to center field in the first inning for the Braves, and Kiernan Tiemeyer brought him in with a single to make it 1-0. Cole Darlage then hit the ball past third base, but Burton followed with his first strikeout to end the threat.
After Burton struck out all three Braves in the top of the second, his teammates hit back-to-back hits with one out in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 1.
In the fourth inning, the Braves committed two errors and pitcher Ethan Davis walked the next batter to load the bases. That’s when Shaffer Boulet was hit by a pitch, sending Peyton Arthur across the plate for a 2-1 lead. A tagout at home plate and a strikeout putout ended the inning.
The Braves left a runner on third base in the top of the fifth and left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh.
“I was proud of our guys the way they fought, able to get the tying run on base in the seventh, but we just gave them too many free bases. That’s what it boils down to,” Tormoehlen said.
“They hit two balls hard in play, and those were both outs, and the four runs they scored, I think, were got on by error or hit by pitch or walk,” he said. “It’s a game of free bases, and we gave them too many of those tonight. Good teams will take advantage, and we’ve been struggling a little bit offensively as far as putting runs across, and it’s hard to win 1-0 ballgames.”
Davis pitched 5⅓ innings, striking out seven and giving up four hits, four runs, four walks and two hit batsmen. Nathan Koch pitched the final two outs of the sixth inning.
Koch, Braeden Anderson and Ethan Isaacs are the Braves’ seniors, and Tormoehlen said all three are great kids.
“Braeden Anderson is probably the best teammate as far as I’ve ever coached, willing to do anything for this program,” Tormoehlen said.
“Isaacs is a kid that throughout his four years for us, he played multiple positions, and this year with (Jake) Pauley getting hurt, we needed him to catch, and he was willing to step in and do that. Super proud of him,” he said.
“Then Nathan Koch, he’s a guy that we didn’t know where he was going to play,” Tormoehlen said. “We knew he was going to be in the outfield, but we needed him to pitch, we had a lot of injuries with guys on the mound this year and he stepped up and pitched some quality innings for us. I think he had the third-most innings on the team, just a battler.”
The seniors will graduate Saturday. Koch plans to enter the U.S. Air Force, while Isaacs and Anderson are headed to college.
“All of those guys are continuing to get some education beyond, so super proud of those guys,” Tormoehlen said.
The returning players now know what they need to do for next season.
“At the beginning of the year, we had one starter and two innings total on the mound,” Tormoehlen said. “Those guys got a lot of experience for this year, so hopefully, we’ll be able to build off of it for next year.”