The boys baseball team wrapped up its home schedule with a 4-2 win against cross-town rivals, Hickman High School on Senior Night.
The Bruins scored one run in both the second and third inning and added two runs in the fourth inning. Sophomore Connor Brumfield, junior Michael Buxton and seniors David Plain and Jansen Smith all contributed with RBI singles.
The game was smooth sailing for the Bruins until the top of the fifth inning when Kewpie lead-off hitter, junior Colby Fitch, laced a double into the outfield off of sophomore pitcher Logan Twehous.
With one out, a runner on second and the heart of the Kewpie lineup coming up things looked precarious for the Bruins as the Kewpies looked ready to explode offensively.
The next batter, senior Jonathan Jones ripped another double but, as Fitch headed for home Jones tried to advance to third on the throw to the plate and ended up being tagged out in a run down situation. Now with two outs on the base running error and the bases empty, Twehous forced Hickman senior Jake Cowan to fly out and end the inning.
The Kewpies would threaten again in the sixth inning with back to back leadoff singles by seniors Jared Hyler and Aaron Tajnai. After a shallow fly out to left, junior Carter Buresh drove home Hyler with a RBI single. With runners at first and second Hickman again looked poised to score big, but junior Ryan Bernskoetter pitching in relief of Twehous forced the Kewpies’ eighth hitter to ground into a double play ending the threat.
From there the Kewpies went quietly as Bernskoetter retired the side in order to end the seventh.
Sophomore Chandler Wyatt picked up the win for the Bruins as he threw four scoreless frames and struck out two batters. Bernskoetter threw 1 and 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out two batters in the top of the seventh and got the save.
By Graham Ratermann
Photos by Laurel Critchfield
The Bruins play tomorrow at Fatima before beginning district action Saturday at Vivion Field in Jefferson City. With the win against district foe Hickman, the Bruins hope to have locked up the one or two seed at districts and the first round bye that comes with the top two seeds.