Brownstown’s Zoe Stuckwisch fires it to Erin Singleton as the Braves catch a Henryville baserunner in between second and third base.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
After receiving a throw from Erin Singleton, Brownstown’s Sophie Wayt tags out a Henryville runner in between second and third base on Monday night.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Kelsey Schneider winds up a pitch against Henryville on Monday night. Schneider didn’t allow a run in four innings pitched.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Brownstown’s Kelsey Schneider takes off her head gear and runs to the dugout after striking out a Henryville batter on Monday night.
Dylan Wallace | The Tribune
Brownstown left no doubt on the diamond in its 13-4 win over Henryville on Monday evening.
The Braves scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning, and it was their usual suspects.
Kelsey Schneider led off by beating a throw to first base that wound up going so far past the Henryville first baseman that Schneider was able to advance to third base. Emily Singleton drove her in with an RBI double, and then her sister Erin Singleton singled to put runners at the corners.
Up came Rylee May, who drove in Emily to make it 2-0. Zoe Stuckwisch followed with an RBI double that scored Erin, and Sophie Wayt singled to drive in May and that’s how the Braves got their first-inning lead.
“Our top five have hit pretty consistently all year,” head coach Darren Bryant said.
After scoring zero runs in the second, Brownstown scored two runs each in both the third and fourth innings. In the third, May launched her third homerun of the season over the centerfield wall for two runs, and in the fourth, May hit a single that drove in two more runs.
In May’s first three plate appearances, she had five RBI.
“She’s been our best hitter all year,” Bryant said. “We’ve got some speed in front of her in the lineup, and when they got on, she drives them in.”
Schneider pitched the first four innings and allowed no runs, but Bryant decided to pull her for May because of the workload Schneider had on Saturday.
“She pitched well today,” Bryant said. “She pitched a bunch on Saturday — 160 pitches in the first game (against East Central). She pitched the last inning or two in the second game (against Hamilton Southeastern), so I didn’t want to pitch her a lot tonight if I didn’t have to.”
Henryville got one run in the fifth and three in the sixth to make it 8-4, but Brownstown added five more insurance runs in the sixth to eliminate any hope for a Hornets comeback.
A lot of Henryville’s runs came on errors from the Braves’ defense, which is a recurring issue Bryant has seen.
“We’re still making a few too many mistakes. That’s what beat us Saturday,” Bryant said. “I’d like to eliminate some of those errors.”
On Saturday, Brownstown lost 3-1 to East Central but led 1-0 the whole game until the seventh. The second game was against Hamilton Southeastern, who jumped out to a 4-0 lead but Brownstown battled back to take a lead 5-4 lead before Hamilton Southeastern walked it off in the seventh. Both games ended on errors from the Braves.
“It was frustrating, but we played well with teams that are pretty good teams,” Bryant said.
With the win over Henryville on Monday, Brownstown is now 9-5 on the season will be at Salem tonight at 6:30 p.m. The Lions will play Austin first before taking on the Braves as this game was rescheduled from last week.