For The Tribune

BROWNSTOWN

Brownstown Central’s baseball team collected 18 hits Saturday to sweep Trinity Lutheran 8-2 and 7-6 to extend its win string to six games.

Braves coach John Lawson said his team did a lot of good things in the two games.

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He said his team got off to a slow start in the first game before it came on strong by scoring three runs in the fourth inning and four runs in the fifth.

“We struggled a little bit in our early at bats, but once we saw their pitcher our guys got a little more comfortable,” he said. “We had some good at bats today and honestly, some of the things that I pick about that we do wrong, we did a lot of things correctly today.

“We got some bunts down and we’ve been struggling with that. That’s one thing we’ve been working hard on the last few days. I’m happy with that and I’m happy with the pitching in the first game.”

The Braves held a 1-0 lead before scoring three in the fourth to increase their lead to 4-0, then doubled their lead in the fourth.

Kyle Kramer had the big hit in the fourth, a solo home run, and Devin Stuckwisch had a double in the inning.

Ty Maxie and Cody Williams each had two RBIs, and Nick Marling and Gus Hogan each scored two runs.

Sy Zickler pitched the first 5.1 innings and had five strike outs, he walked five and allowed two hits. Williams finished and had three strike outs.

Ross Kruse had a double and Chandler Reynolds a single and both had RBIs with their hits for the Trinity runs.

In the second game, Jake VonDielingen led off the top of the first with a home run. It is the second time this season he has homered leading off a game as he also hit one out at Crothersville.

Nick Mensendiek homered in the fifth inning for his second of the season.

Carson Lambring walked leading off the bottom of the first and scored on a single by Zickler. Williams singled in the second inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lambring.

The Braves scored three unearned runs in the fourth, helped by three Trinity errors.

The Cougars broke the 5-5 tie on Kendall White’s home run in the top of the sixth for a 6-5 lead.

Maxie led off the bottom of the fifth by being hit by pitch and Marling walked. Stuckwisch doubled into right-center to bring home two runs.

Marling had two hits, Lambring scored two runs and had two RBIs, and Stuckwisch also had two RBIs to lead the Braves’ offense.

White had three hits and scored two runs, VonDielingen had two hits and scored two runs, and Mensendiek had two hits and two RBIs.

“I felt our pitcher (Jake Moore) pitched a lot better than the score represents,” Trinity coach Matt VonDielingen said. “They had two balls that landed on the baseline that were swinging bunts for hits, they had two balls – one to the left of second and one to the right of second – that were so slow we couldn’t make a play on them.

“It seemed like we made plays on the well-hit balls, like the diving catch (Ross) Kruse made in center, but they had so many in-betweeners. They in-betweened us to death.”

Lawson said the defense needed to shape up in the second game.

“The second game was a little sloppy,” he said. W”e walked way too many (9) guys. You’re going to give up some runs if you walk that many guys.

“Our defense had some shakiness at times in the second game, but it’s nice to win a doubleheader and stay on a roll. We’ve been playing pretty well in the last week and a half.”

The Braves (9-1) will host Austin today in a rescheduled Mid-Southern Conference game, and Trinity (5-5) will play Tuesday at Scottsburg.