Mountain Pointe 8
Brophy 2
By Erik T. Masingill ’12
THE ROUNDUP
The Brophy baseball team scored their lowest amount of runs in a game this season with two as the Broncos lost their third road game 8-2 to Mountain Pointe Friday, March 30.
“A lot of times, we have ridden the emotion of our pitching,” said head coach Mr. Tom Succow. “And Michael Westra ’13, who we kind of consider maybe our No. 1 pitcher, just didn’t have it today.”
David Graybill ’12 led off the game with a homerun on the first pitch from the Pride that gave the Broncos an early 1-0 lead.
Mountain Pointe (10-7-1 Overall) answered in the bottom of the first with three runs scored off a two-RBI double and an error. The Pride led 3-1 after the first inning and held that lead throughout the game.
Westra threw 31 pitches in the first inning while Mountain Pointe’s pitcher, Zach Cordova threw 17 pitches.
The Broncos surrendered a two-run homerun to the Pride in the bottom of the second inning to extend their deficit to 5-1.
Brophy scored its second run in the fourth inning with a solo homerun from Nick Jewett ’12. However, the Pride answered again with a three-run homerun in the bottom half of the inning.
The Broncos were down 8-2 after the fourth inning which proved to be the final score as the Broncos were unable to score a run in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Cordova pitched all seven innings for the Pride allowing two runs, seven hits and one walk while striking out one on 93 pitches.
Westra pitched 3 and 2/3 innings allowing eight runs, five hits and four walks while striking out two on 68 pitches.
Mr. Succow said those four walks along with the at-bats for Brophy hurt the Broncos’ chances of winning the game.
“They scored four of their eight runs today off of walks, and that kills us,” he said. “We need to strive for better at-bats to keep the ball out of the air a little bit. We get a little homer happy or a little big-swing happy sometimes, and we get some lazy fly balls, and that kind of hurts us.”
The Broncos two runs were brought in from two solo homeruns as the team went 0-4 with runners in scoring position along with eight flyouts.
Relief pitcher Steven Oleksak ’13 pitched 2 and 1/3 innings allowing no runs, no hits and one walk while striking out two on 28 pitches.
Mr. Succow said Oleksak’s performance brought out a bright spot for the Broncos in the loss.
“The good news is that Steven Oleksak came in relief,” he said. “He’s been struggling lately, and I thought he came in and did a really good job and pitched with confidence.”
The Broncos overall record drops to 11-5 as they have 10 games left on their schedule entering into April. They remain on the road as they next travel to play Kofa Monday, April 2.
Brophy defeated Kofa 7-2 in the Broncos’ third game and win of the season on Thursday, Feb. 23.