Church Dominates as Bruins Roll Over West Potomac

Michael Church scattered five hits across six innings allowing just one run, as Lake Braddock cruised to an 8-1 win over West Potomac Monday.

The top four hitters in the Bruins offense reached base in 18 of their 20 plate appearances.

“We were offensively good tonight,” said Lake Braddock Coach Jody Rutherford. “It is a lot easier to hit when your pitching only allows one run.”

Sophomore Alex Gransback led the Bruins’ offense early with a home run and three RBI. Gransback was 3-for-3 and reached base in all five of his plate appearances.

Senior Kenny Towns was intentionally walked twice in addition to doubling and driving in a run.

“[Getting intentionally walked] is upsetting because I love hitting,” said Towns. “But it’s getting on base and that is important.”

The Bruins took a 4-1 lead to the seventh and rallied for four more runs. Sophomore Garrett Driscoll started the rally off with a single and scored on sophomore Alex Lewis’ RBI double.

Church started the game for the Bruins and pitched six strong innings, striking out six. Senior Kenny Towns came in to close the game in the seventh, striking out the side.

“Church was pretty good tonight,” said Rutherford. “We were experimenting with his pitches tonight.”

Wolverine catcher Matt Hrin threw out two base runners stealing and picked off two more at third base.

“Matt had a good, good game today,” said Wolverine Coach Jim Sullivan. “We’ve been working on speeding up his release and it showed.”

“We were flat on the bases tonight,” said Rutherford on a few base-running mishaps. “Some of the guys were, what I like to call, ‘taking pitches off.’”

Wolverine starter junior Dan Jarrell pitched four innings allowing six hits and three runs. Jarrell also had the Wolverines only RBI with a two-out single in the fourth.

“Dan has been one of our most effective pitchers,” said Sullivan. “He mixed his three pitches successfully, but threw a lot of balls. He was exhausted when he came out.”