Seven games in seven days can be rough on a high school baseball team, but the Bellmont Braves scored a nice little victory Wednesday night at Woodlan to stop a two-game skid, beating the Warriors, 7-5.
The Braves had a two-run rally in the first and scored three more in the fourth to take control of the game with Matthew Bleeke on the mound.
Layne LeMaster started the rally in the first with a double, then the Braves played small ball to score their pair of runs – one with a sacrifice fly and another on a wild pitch.
Bleeke then settled in and set down nine of the first eleven batters he faced, sending the Braves into that fourth inning with their 2-0 lead intact.
In their fourth-inning rally, Cam Friedt led off the Braves’ inning with a single and he took third on a double by Kaigan Lee. Gavin Krull and Will Franze kept the train moving with RBI singles, pushing the lead to five.
Bleeke got a big strikeout to limit Woodlan to two runs in the bottom of the inning and he induced a groundout to escape the fifth with the same amount of damage.
The Braves gave Bleeke insurance in the top of the seventh with the second double of the contest by LeMaster and a big two-run double by Lee.
Woodlan did claw back with one run in the bottom of the final inning, but the infield made the big play, ending the game with a double play, doubling off a runner at second base.
Bleeke finished the night with seven hits allowed across his seven innings, with four of the five runs being earned. He did not walk a batter and struck out five.
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