BROWNSTOWN — The Brownstown Central baseball team exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 10-3 win over Jennings County Tuesday evening.
Carson Darlage started the rally with a single and later scored on a wild pitch. The amazing thing about the inning is that 12 consecutive batters reached base. After Trent Lowery walked, Grayson Cassidy, Pierson Wheeler and Jaxson Johnson had consecutive singles.
Chick Tiemeyer and Ethan Garland also had hits during the inning, and Johnson collected his second hit of the inning, giving the Braves eight hits in the sixth. Darlage, who was on base four times with a walk and fielder’s choice, scored two runs in the inning. Tiemeyer had a two-run single in that inning and Johnson had an RBI with each of his hits.
“It is pretty amazing. I would think against a pretty quality opponent it probably is (amazing) to have 12 straight batters reach base without getting out, not just high school baseball, but I coached travel baseball for 12 years,” head coach Duane Higgs said. “I’ve coached a lot of games and I’m sure we may have done that before but against a really good team like Jennings County, a well-coached team, it doesn’t happen every day of the week, that’s for sure.”
The Braves had 11 hits for the game with lead-off batter Ethan Garland getting three, and Darlage and Johnson both had two.
Garland said he thinks he might have had three hits in a game earlier this season.
“I was looking for a first-pitch fastball down the middle, looking to hit it into the gaps somewhere,” he said. “The first hit was a long at bat and then I got a fastball. The second AB I hit a curveball, and the other hit I hit a fastball first pitch. We want to hit our peak like the last game of the season and in the sectional. We’re trying to get better as we go into our last games. A couple of guys got good hits off me to left field, but other than that my pitching was all right.”
Garland pitched the first five innings and allowed two runs, one earned, four hits and he had one strikeout and one walk.
Lane Pendleton pitched the two innings and allowed one run, three hits, one walk and no strikeouts.
The Braves tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third when Garland singled and scored on an infield out by Lowery. Lowery, Johnson and Tiemeyer had two RBIs each.
“All game long, for the most part, I was really happy with our quality at bats. We didn’t have a lot to show for it on the scoreboard, and that’s part of it,” Higgs said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to really grind. Kudos to that pitcher (Austin Byford). Byford was good and we just kept grinding and grinding, and that’s what I’ve been trying to tell these guys. You keep grinding in your at bats, you’re eventually going to get rewarded. We’ve been on the other side of not getting some bunts down, or the other team got some bunts down and we didn’t execute defensively.”
In the sixth, after Darlage walked and Lowery walked, Cassidy laid down a bunt between the pitcher’s mound and the third base foul line that he beat out for a hit that loaded the bases. Wheeler and Johnson followed with RBI singles and the Braves were off and running.
Higgs said the bunt was a big play.
“It all started in that big inning with Grayson laying down a beautiful bunt in that situation,” he said. “What a great bunt.”
The Braves (19-8) will close their regular season at Southwestern (Hanover) on Saturday.
“We want to go in (to the sectional) on a two-game win streak,” Higgs said. “Our last seven, eight games we’ve played some really quality competition, and that’s what we want this time of year. We want to be in dog fights and we want these kids to understand how to play the game, not just physically but also mentally and emotionally because this game is a grind and it’s tough.”