The Bradwell Institute baseball team fell just short Monday in an 8-7 non-region loss to Brunswick at home.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Tigers trailed by one run. Despite having runners on base with two outs, the Tigers just couldn’t generate the late offense needed.
Brunswick hit the ground running, getting two runs off three hits in the first inning.
But the Tigers fought back in the bottom of the second inning. Chris Bell and Sage Sammons each got a hit, and Jermaine Davilia drove in Bell with a hit of his own. Hunter Miller hit a low shot to score a run to tie the game at 2. Ryan Desbiens then hit an RBI single, giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
The Pirates tied the game at 3 in the third inning, and both teams were scoreless in the fourth.
In the fifth inning, the Tigers had four consecutive hits and scored two more runs to take a 5-3 lead. The Pirates answered as the Tigers’ defense committed errors, letting Brunswick score four more runs for a 7-5 Pirates lead in the top of the sixth inning.
Brunswick added one more run in the seventh inning, and the Tigers took their last at-bat. Sammons hit a double down the right-field line, two Tigers were walked and the Pirates committed an error.
Suddenly, it was a one-run game with two outs and runners on second and third. But it wasn’t meant to be as the Pirates made the final out.
Bradwell coach Rhett Hellgren said those defensive errors proved costly.
“You can’t win ball games with eight errors,” he said. “You can’t have mental breakdowns on the base pads, either. We must have concentration and intensity at every pitch. When you take off one pitch, the ball is going to come to you, and this is what happens when you are not ready on every pitch.”
The Tigers did have 10 hits in the game with Sammons, going 3 for 4. Desbiens, Bell and Davilla each had two hits.
The Tigers, who were 5-13 overall and 2-6 in Region 3-AAAAA as of Monday, are scheduled to play at 4:30 p.m. today at Groves to make up a game that was rained out last Friday.
Bradwell hosts Jenkins at 6 p.m. Friday.