Errors sink Brookside in district semi

It went from tame to untamed for the Brookside Cardinals, as they had five errors in a 4-2 loss to Padua in a Division II Parma District semifinal at Ron Mott Field in Parma on May 15.

Padua (8-17) will take on Firelands on May 16 in a Division II district final at Ron Mott Field with first pitch at 5 p.m.

Early on it was a pitcher’s duel for both teams in the first three innings of the game, as there was three scoreless frames and a total of three hits allowed

“I thought (pitcher) Connor (Baughman) was outstanding,” Brookside coach Bill McCleave said. “He really did pitch a good game. It’s a shame that we lost it, but we only scored two runs and that’s not enough. We have to score more, we’re just not hitting the ball well. I thought we played pretty well though, overall.”

Padua, however, got on the board first in the top of the fourth on an throwing error to second, as Bogi Kazimour, scored from first on an attempted steal of second, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Brookside, however, answered in the bottom of the first, as Mike Webber came up with a game-tying RBI single, making it 1-1.

The Bruins took back the lead in the top of the fifth, making it 2-1 on an RBI sacfly to left from Austin Phillips.

Brookside (10-11) would go scoreless in the very next inning but surrender two more runs in the sixth on four errors, as Padua took advantage of a series of throwing errors throughout the inning.

“It killed us,” McCleave said. “Errors destroyed us, and it’s been like that all year. We seem to just implode one inning and make a lot of errors and it just hurts us.”

Out of the four runs that Brookside surrendered,

three were unearned.

“It’s a case of us being young,” McCleave said on whether it’s a lack of focus or youth. “We had a couple of sophomores starting and a lot of juniors starting, so we’re young. We made a lot of bad mistakes in the outfield.”

Despite the lack of runs, Brookside mustered one more run out in the bottom of the sixth, as Webber came up with his second RBI single of the game, cutting the lead to 4-2.

Overall, Webber finished the game going 2-for-4 with two RBI for the Cardinals, while the rest of the team had a total of three hits.

Brookside starter Connor Baughman went a full seven innings, allowing four runs, one earned, on four hits while striking out two and walking none.

“This was a stepping stone for greater things in the future,” Baughman said. “We have a good core of guys returning for next year, but I’m sad to see our seniors leave too. It’s going to be tough to lose them, but overall we had a decent season and we hope to come back stronger next year.”