Colby Thomas' six-RBI performance lifts Bravos over Hyannis

Colby Thomas’ six-RBI performance lifts Bravos over Hyannis

By: Nick Galle 

Right before first pitch of Monday night’s game against Hyannis, Colton Bender got the call from the San Diego Padres that he had been drafted in the 10th round of this year’s MLB Draft. Hours earlier, Gordon Graceffo was selected in the fifth round of the draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. It was going to be a good night for the Bravos regardless of the outcome of the actual game, but a 6-3 win made the evening all the better.

That win came on the shoulders of Colby Thomas, who exploded at the plate. The Mercer product went 3-for-4 with six RBIs and one run scored. He was just a single shy of the cycle.

“I’ve kind of been struggling to get on top of the ball, so I made my goal for today to make sure I got on top of the ball and I would say that worked pretty well,” Thomas said. “I’ve been kind of needing a day like this to know I can still do this kind of stuff. It feels great to be confident in my swing and just trusting my hands and everything else.”

After earning a win last Wednesday against Falmouth, Ben Ethridge made his first start of the summer and held the Harbor Hawks scoreless through four innings. He allowed five hits, walked two and struck out four. Since he started during his college season, Ethridge said tonight’s transition was an easy one.

“I was kind of used to it. It felt good to get back out there and start,” Ethridge said. “Most of these guys, I haven’t played against because they’re all from these big schools around here, their best players. And so most of them I haven’t played against and normally when I don’t play against people I just go out with the mindset that they’re not going to beat me, and that’s what I did tonight.”

Max Anderson had his sixth multi-hit performance of the season, going 2-for-5 with two base hits. Christian Knapczyk went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and three runs scored, Braylen Wimmer went 2-for-5 with two singles and a run scored and Cayden Wallace went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored.

“The lefty had good stuff. He was kind of funky and threw 90 with a good breaking ball,” Shapiro said. “But the key is Thomas hit a three-run homer. So that’s good, and then we had a 5-0 lead and we made a mistake on one pitch and that’s the way baseball is.”

Bourne will be back at McKeon Park tomorrow night at 6 p.m. for game two of the three-game series that the Braves have with Hyannis this week. The Bravos are now 2-0 against the Hawks this season.

Cover photo via: Joe Sullivan