Elkhart tops Bremen in baseball battle of the Lions
BREMEN — If you told Bremen High School baseball coach Ryan Carpenter ahead of his team’s game against Elkhart Wednesday that his Lions would get 11 hits, score seven runs and turn three double plays with his best pitcher on the mound, he would have liked his chances.
His team did all of those things, but could not overcome a huge early deficit and it was the other Lions that came away with the 15-7 Northern Indiana Conference win on Senior Night.
“I’d like just a plain and simple game, but it never is,” said the Bremen skipper.
Behind eight hits and two Bremen errors, Elkhart put up nine runs before the home team batted for the first time. Starting pitcher Camden Hickman came in with an outstanding ERA of 0.938, but the Elkhart hitters were finding every imaginable hole.
“There was no glaring thing we did wrong,” Carpenter said of that fateful first frame. “They just hit it where we weren’t. That’s baseball for you. We threw strikes and they probably had their best outing. They had some guys who aren’t hitting great on the year and they get two or three hits. It was their day.”
To Bremen’s credit, it responded with four runs in the bottom half and tacked on two more in the second inning to close the gap to just three runs, highlighted by Aden Hunziker and JJ Cencelewski getting RBIS in each inning.
Later, Bremen had the bases loaded in both the fifth and sixth stanzas, but only one run came across. The home team Lions left 13 runners on base for the game.
“We were right there so many times, we just
could not close that gap enough,” added Carpenter. “We had traffic (runners) almost every inning. We just didn’t capitalize.”
Sophomore Zack Buszkiewicz allowed just two hits during his two innings of relief, but was hurt by five walks and a hit batter. Senior Kaden Martin was the most effective, striking out three and walking just two, while allowing three hits and two runs over the last four innings.
“(Martin) was lights out,” said Carpenter. “When he came in, the bases are loaded, the game’s still in the balance and it’s the top of the order. We get a ground ball, then two more quick outs and we are out of it. He slowed them down during the time he was in there.”
Offensively, Silas Laidig’s great season at the dish continued. He went 3-for-5 with an RBI and one run scored. Cencelewski, Martin and Marcos Gonzales each had a pair of hits. Reece Greene and Preston Williams scored twice and Williams made a great running catch in center field to end the fourth inning.
Williams’ catch was not the biggest defensive highlight for Bremen though. In the second inning, Hickman caught a liner in left field, then fired a dart to first base to double off a runner. The next frame, with runners on first and second, Reece scooped up a hard one-hopper up the middle, touched second, then made the relay to first for another twin killing. The sixth inning ended when an Elkhart batter hit a line shot up the middle, but it was snared by Martin, who easily doubled off the runner at first.
“I think we had two (double plays) in the season last year so to get three in one game is amazing,” Carpenter said of his team’s rare feat. “Kaden made a great play, Reece made a great play and the one from left field to first was good too.”
Bremen’s next game is Friday at South Central.