For The Tribune
BROWNSTOWN
Brownstown Central’s baseball team enjoyed team one of its top offensive days of the season by pounding out 29 hits in two games to whip Henryville 7-1 in Game 1 and 14-4 in five innings for Game 2 on Saturday.
“It was a huge offensive day,” Braves coach John Lawson said. “Some guys really had a big day. We had some guys kind of bust loose today.
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“(Collin) DeHart in the second game had a couple hits, and two hits and a couple RBIs in the first game. He had a big day, (Cole) Borden had a good day at the plate with four hits for the day, (Cole) Brock has been swinging has been swinging the bat real well. He had five hits, and (Austin) Green was 4 for 4 with four doubles. It was kind of spread up and down the line-up.”
Six players divided the 12 hits in the first game with Brock getting three, while DeHart, Ty Maxie, Zach McCory and Borden had two each.
DeHart had two RBIs, while Maxie had a double for the Braves’ only extra base hit.
After the Hornets scored one run in the top of the first, the Braves came up with four in the second, then added three more in the fifth.
Sy Zickler allowed Henryville three hits, to go along with four strikeouts and three walks to pick up the win.
Henryville took a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first in the second game, and after the Braves went out in order in the bottom of the first, they sent eight batters to the plate in the second inning and scored five runs with four coming on DeHart’s grand slam.
“I think that kind of woke everybody up, and the bats got woke up,” Lawson said. “In the first inning of the second game I think their pitcher threw a total of six pitches. We came back in the next inning and lit them up for five runs.”
After scoring pairs of runs in the third and fourth innings, Brownstown ended the game with five in the fifth.
“It helps getting those big hits when you’ve got bases loaded,” Lawson said. “We put up some crooked numbers there in some of the innings that really helped our pitchers out. It gave them a lot of confidence.
“I think we played pretty good defense. We had an error in the first game and one error in the second and that’s a pretty good day. We made all the plays we should today.”
Nine different players collected hits in the second game with Green going 4-for-4 with four doubles, scoring three with RBIs.
DeHart also had a double, while Devin Stuckwisch, Borden, Brock and Darrell Branaman had two hits each.
Cody Williams and Maxie pitched the second game and held the Hornets to five hits while striking out three and walking one.
“For the most part, pitchers threw strikes,” Lawson said. “We had some ups-and-downs at different times. We had some deep counts. Zickler threw the first game and threw really well. He didn’t give up a hit until about the fourth.
The Braves are 13-6 and will play Tuesday at Mitchell.