Brighton Baseball Captures Second at Area Tournament

After winning two games convincingly, Brighton bats cooled as Howell held off a tenacious Bulldog team 8-4 Saturday to win the Shelander tournament Saturday.

Brighton head coach George Reck said his team played well in beating Pinckney 10-0 and Fowlerville 5-1 but couldn't carry the momentum into finals in Brighton.

“If we did hit it hard, it went right to them or we popped it up. We didn’t get the ball on the ground and didn’t get on top of it,” Reck said

The Highlanders held Brighton, now 11-5 on the year, to four hits.

Despite the struggles at the plate, Brighton was able to jump out to early leads. In the first, Shane Dokey doubled and later stole third base. Two batters later, Travis Cohoon was hit by a pitch and reached third after a wild pitch that scored Dokey. Designated hitter Brad Tullar knocked Cohoon with a triple and the Bulldogs ended the inning with a 2-1 lead.

Howell tied the game again at 2-2 in the top of the second before Brighton scored two more to go up 4-2. However, Howell broke the game open for good with a four-run third, chasing starter Colin Nash.

“Nash pitched two days earlier and maybe I shouldn’t have started him, he didn’t throw like he usually does. He gave us a few good innings. I should have pitched someone else,” Reck added.

Brighton next plays 4 p.m. Monday at Walled Lake Western.