Dateline: Browns Chapel
It was a cloudy morning at Browns Chapel when the A’s took the field to continue their home-stand. Alyssa took the mound and quickly shut down the Braves but the Braves pitcher threw heat and it was scoreless after one.
Alyssa continued a stellar morning with two more strikeouts in the second again keep the Braves off the scoreboard. The A’s struck first with a sharp smash to left by Will, a hit batter (Richard) and two wild pitches to bring Will around to score the first run. After two, it was a tight game at 1-0. Alyssa continued on and struck out the side in the third. The Braves ace ran into some control problems and after walks to Omar and hitting Jonathon and Tommy, the bases were loaded. Matthew and Mitchell walked in two runs. Tommy then scored on a wild pitch and the A’s led 4-0.
In the top of the fourth, Matthew came to the mound and continued the great pitching. He struck out the first two battter he faced and after a couple of weak singles the Braves managed to scratch out run. Matthew struck out the last batter to end the thread. In the bottom half of the inning, Will led off with a walk and Richard singled and Steven hit a line drive to left filed scoring Will and Richard. After 4, it was 6-1 A’s.
Matthew struck out two in the fifth and the Braves went down quietly. The A’s continued to pour on the offense with two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. Matthew singled and Mitchell hit a short grounder to the pitcher. After a series of errors, both Matthew and Mitchell scored on the play. After 5, A’s led 8-1 as Matthew headed back to the mound.
The Braves put up a valiant final effort and scored two runs and had a runner on base with their cleanup hitter at the plate. He hit a sharp smash to Will at first who leaped and grabbed it for the final out of the game.
Coach Goldstein was very pleased with the game “It was exciting. I liked our solid pitching and people looked like they really learned something from our discussions of where to actually stand in the field for various positions. ” Coach Grossman was racing off to begin preparations for the long upcoming week with two games (due to a makeup for the rainout). He said “Alyssa and Matthew both had a great day and I was very pleased to see us alertly swinging the ball. We still have to work more on THINKING WHERE TO THROW BEFORE THE BALL IS HIT…but that will come with time. Pierce did a great job behind the plate with five hard innings of work and Daniel looked fantastic on a key play in the last inning where a wild pitch looked like it would score the run, but Daniel alertly got to the ball and the runner held. Those kind of plays send a message to the other dugout.”
