Lake Braddock Baseball Defeats West Springfield 7-5 in District Opener

Lake Braddock beat West Springfield 7-5 in Friday’s Patriot District opener between two of the best teams in the Northern Region.

Thomas Rogers, the sophomore starting pitcher for the Bruins, pitched four strong innings only allowing three runs, two of which were unearned. Rodgers was pulled after the fourth due to a high pitch count, according to coach Jody Rutherford.

“He started off a little slow even though both of those runs were unearned,” said Rutherford. “That didn’t factor in my decision to take him out. His pitch count was at 90.”

The Bruins rallied in the fourth after West Springfield senior David Pyon hit a long solo home run to dead center to break an early 2-2 tie. Rutherford kept his players in the game telling them that there was still a lot more baseball to be played.

Taking their coach’s advice, the Bruins didn’t waste any time. Sophomore Alex Gransback hit leadoff for the Bruins and had a couple of hits and two big RBI in the Bruins’ five run fourth.

“I got a couple of fastballs that I liked and hit them,” Gransback said. “We never put our heads down and were positive in the dugout.”

“We had our moments,” said Spartans Coach John James of Pyon’s shot. “It’s always tough whenever any team puts five runs up in one inning.”

Spartan starter, senior Michael Simko, tossed 3.1 innings before being pulled during the Bruins’ rally. He allowed four runs.

Bruin shortstop Kenny Towns, who is committed to play at Virginia next year, had two hits and an RBI. Towns was also intentionally walked in his first two at -ats. His production at the plate made up for a couple of errors he had at shortstop.

“We haven’t had much time out on the field yet,” said Rutherford of the errors. “We’ve played three of our games on turf. They still need to play on grass and dirt a little more.”

It was the bats that carried the Bruins on Friday, even though they were a little slow to heat up.

“I think everyone getting a chance to see the pitcher one time around definitely helped,” said Lake Braddock assistant coach Bill Askin. “There is always a lot of pressure playing a team like West Springfield though.”

The Spartans did threaten in the last inning, getting a couple runners on and scoring. Junior Michael Church was able to pitch his way out of the jam.

“There are no excuses at the end of the day,” said James. “Lake Braddock just plain beat us. It is that simple.”