Bourne falls with bases loaded

Tiffany Seal

BOURNE, Mass.–The West’s third-place Braves (17-19-2) dropped their last regular-season game against eastern Brewster Whitecaps (15-21-2,) 3-0 Wednesday night.

With a strong outing from LSU’s Doug Norman, the Braves were unable to come back from a three-run sixth inning by Whitecap hitters.

Norman went 5 1-3, giving up one earned run off four hits, two walks and three strikeouts.

His night ended in the sixth, when he hit leadoff and fellow LSU teammate Bryce Jordan who then advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Chad Luensmann (Nebraska) came in relief and gave up the extent of Brewster runs, allowing Jordan to score off a single by Zack Gahagan (UNC Chapel Hill) who was shortly brought around by Brent Rooker’s (Mississippi State) two-run opposite field home run to make it 3-0.

Both Gahagan and Julian Infante (Vanderbilt) went 2 for 4 on the night, with an RBI and run scored for Gahagan.

Braves’ bats were quiet against starter Hunter Martin (Tennessee) who dominated the lineup with a line of three-hit scoreless baseball with two walks and three strikeouts over eight innings.

Bourne was able to knock just four hits in total off the Brewster staff.

In the bottom of the ninth, Bourne proceeded to show some late-inning fight by loading the bases. The rally began when Connor Wong (Houston) hit a two-out single to right that was followed up by two walks from David MacKinnon (Hartford) and John Jones (South Carolina) off Samford’s Wyatt Burns.

The offense halted there, as Evan Mendoza (NC State) grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

With an off-day Thursday, the Braves travel to their last eastern road game to play the Orleans Firebirds (16-20-1,) 7 p.m., Friday at Eldredge Park with probables Brooks Wilson (Stetson) and Bourne’s AJ Moore (Kennesaw State) taking the mound.