Braves Squeeze Out Eight-Inning Comeback Win Over Brewster
The Bourne Braves returned to the place where it all began Sunday night.
That is, they returned to the site where they opened their 2023 season. Despite coming back to the same old Stony Brook Field, the circumstances couldn’t have felt more different. The Braves have nearly an entirely different roster than they did about a month ago, and they also have a lot more wins. They trailed for much of Sunday’s game, but overcame an early 3-0 lead to pull out a 5-4 victory over Brewster in an eight-inning affair that was called early due to lack of daylight.
“We’ll take that one,” Bourne manager Scott Landers said. “That’s a big one for us, even though it’s non-division.”
Starting on the mound for the Braves was left-hander Ben Jacobs, who just joined the team on Saturday. Jacobs pitched five innings for UCLA this year and is set to transfer to Arizona State. He got off to a very rocky start, missing spots in an ugly first inning. He walked two and gave up three hits in the frame, putting Bourne in a 3-0 hole.
“The kid just got here yesterday,” Landers said. “He doesn’t know anybody, and we throw him into the fire.”
The Braves’ offense tried to make something happen with three walks in the second inning, but they left them loaded. They chipped away for one in the third inning, though, as leadoff hitter Josh Kuroda-Grauer drew another walk and scored on an RBI single by Jonathan Vastine.
“He’s a baseball rat,” Landers said of Vastine. “He comes to work every day. He never wants to be out of the lineup. He wants to play 24/7, and he’s always in it. He wants to get better. He wants us to get better as a team. I’m excited to have him on our side rather than face him.”
Vastine’s RBI knock was Bourne’s only hit through the first five innings. Jacobs settled in, though, not allowing a hit either after the first inning. He issued a couple more walks, and Derek Bender committed an error at first base, but Jacobs otherwise silenced the Brewster offense for the next three innings.
“I think once he settled in and calmed the nerves down a little bit, we got on the same page with what he’s good at and what he’s not so good at it,” Landers said. He hung in there for us, which was great.”
The Braves fought back for another run in the sixth, as Kendall Diggs and Bryce Eblin each collected a hit.
Reliever Brady Afthim nearly gifted the Whitecaps a run by hitting two straight batters to start the bottom of the sixth, but a double play and a strikeout helped him get out of it. He pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Jacobs.
“That’s as long as he’s gone, I think probably the whole year,” Landers said. “I don’t think he went three innings in the spring. So he hung in there for us and gave us what we needed.”
Still down a run, the Braves’ offense stayed composed and rallied to take their first lead of the game in the top of the seventh. Adonys Guzman singled, then came around to score on two wild pitches to tie the game. Kuroda-Grauer worked his second walk, and Vastine slapped another clutch hit to give Bourne the lead. He yelled emphatically before reaching first base, eliciting some chuckles from the packed stands.
Sam Petersen provided an important insurance run with an RBI single of his own. It was a three-run frame for the Braves, and they took a 5-3 lead.
Ryan Free allowed a couple hits and a run in the eighth, but the game was called after the end of the inning due to the quickly dimming sky. It ended in somewhat abrupt, anticlimactic fashion, but it was a win for Bourne nonetheless.
The Braves are now 14-10-1 after winning two straight. They’ll finish this stretch of games with a contest in Hyannis on Monday before getting Tuesday off.
