Braves’ Three-Game Winning Streak Ends With 9-5 Loss to Brewster
By Mojo Hill
With a team that had won three straight facing a team that had lost four straight, something was bound to give.
The Bourne Braves ran out of magic Saturday night. They manufactured some runs in the middle innings, but a disastrous eighth inning plagued them in a 9-5 loss to Brewster at Doran Park. Their three-game winning streak came to an end in the final matchup of a five-game homestand, dropping their record to 5-7-1.
“I told them I liked the intensity,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “We battled, took the lead and we just couldn’t hold it.”
Their offense had trouble with starter Ernie Day at the beginning of the game. His first seven outs were strikeouts, with the only blemishes being a single from Derek Bender — playing left field in order to get his hot bat into the lineup — and a walk from Garrett Michel.
“I tip my cap to their pitcher. He threw really well, especially at the start,” Landers said. “He had his cutter going in on our hands. But we battled and tried to figure it out. We have to figure it out earlier in the game. We can’t go making the same outs the same way inning after inning.”
Bourne right-hander Marcus Morgan also kept Brewster off the board in the first two innings, but he cracked in the third. Three singles and a walk gave Brewster a 2-0 lead. Morgan has had trouble with walks at the University of Iowa, and he walked two in the first three innings.
He issued two more free passes in the fourth, but catcher Hugh Pinkney caught a runner stealing to help him post another zero on the board.
Bender led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk — his 10th time reaching base in his previous 11 plate appearances. The Braves didn’t score in the fourth, but they avoided any strikeouts against Day after those first seven punchouts. Pete Ciuffreda led off the bottom of the fifth with another walk, and Joey Loynd collected the second Bourne hit of the night. After Pinkney bunted the runners over, Day’s outing came to an end.
Facing reliever Joey DeChiaro, Jonathan Vastine hit a clutch single for the second straight night, scoring Ciuffreda. Loynd was thrown out at the plate, so the Braves settled for cutting their deficit to 2-1.
But that margin immediately grew back to two. Bourne reliever Kade Grundy, who got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, surrendered a leadoff homer in the sixth inning. He bounced back with a quick 1-2-3 seventh.
Then in the bottom of the seventh, the Braves chipped away. Michel lined a base hit, Ciuffreda was hit by a pitch and the runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. With one out, Pinkney fouled off a handful of pitches before narrowing the deficit with an RBI groundout. Vastine then came up clutch again, smacking his second RBI single of the game to knot it up at three apiece.
“It makes it easy on you because even if I don’t come through in that situation, I know a guy behind me is gonna do the job and pick me up,” Vastine said. “I’m really just trying to do a job for the team and keep it simple. Don’t make it bigger than what it is.”
Gage Harrelson reached on a soft hit to shortstop to keep the inning alive. He got caught in a pickle, but kept the rundown going long enough that Vastine was able to sprint down with a steal of home. Bourne took a 4-3 lead in pesky fashion.
“That’s a planned play,” Vastine said. “We were trying to get them confused, see if I can get some space. They called it at a perfect time. We saw space, and I took it.”
The lead didn’t last long. Brewster immediately loaded the bases against Doug Kirkland, who was trying to rebound from a tough season debut. He nearly escaped the jam, recording back-to-back strikeouts — with Landers making a mound visit after the first one. But Brewster tied the game on a tough play for second baseman Bryce Eblin, who was charged with an error on a slow roller. Things quickly spiraled. Kirkland issued a bases-loaded walk, then surrendered a grand slam to Trevor Werner. Bourne suddenly became buried in a 9-4 hole.
“Honestly, he did his job,” Landers said of Kirkland. “He got the ground ball with the bases loaded, two outs. It just didn’t happen for us. But he’ll be alright.”
Joey Loynd smashed a home run to left in the ninth. That was all the Braves had in them, though, as they fell 9-5.
Bourne will be back on the road Saturday with a game in Cotuit at 5 p.m.
“We’ll be alright,” Landers said. “If you play every day, you’re gonna lose some. You’re gonna make mistakes. And we did that tonight. We just gotta rebound tomorrow against Cotuit.”
