A promising start turned sour Friday at Brookings as the Huskies baseball team lost an early lead and then the game 5-3 to Brookings-Harbor in the play-in round of state playoffs.
“Brookings was good, but they weren’t great,” said Coach John Best. “They were definitely beatable.”
The Bruins played good defense, Best said. “We’ve seen tougher pitching. We’ve hit tougher (pitching) better. Offensively, they weren’t anything great.”
The Huskies played poor defense and gave up no earned runs, Best said. The Huskies made some throwing errors and moved Brookings guys around.
“We made some good plays,” Best said. “We just didn’t take advantage of our plays.”
Sweet Home had a bad day, he said. “In playoff baseball, you have to be on every pitch.”
The Huskies took a 2-0 lead to open the game.
Keegan Holly singled and stole second. Nathan Virtue singled scoring Holly. Zach Luttmer popped out in foul territory, while Travis Thorpe reached on an error at third base, advancing Virtue to second base. Virtue scored on a single by Colton Smith to give the Huskies the lead.
“In the bottom of the first, we gave them the two runs back,” Best said.
Brookings scored on a pair of errors and a double in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Austin James reached base when he was hit by a pitch and stole home to give his team a 3-2 lead.
Brookings went ahead 5-3 in the bottom of the third on a series of hits and errors.
Collecting hits on the game were Holley, Virtue, Smith, Nick Marler and Zach Zanona.. Virtue and Smith each had an RBI. Holly,
Racho and Adam Shew each had two hits for Brookings. The team had seven hits.
Best said that just a couple were hard hits.
Fisher Anderson started the game, going 2 2/3 innings and giving up five hits and five unearned runs. Smith pitched in relief, giving up a walk and two hits with five strikeouts.
Roman Worthy went six innings for Brookings, giving up two walks, five hits and three runs, one earned, striking out six. Pitching in relief, Shew gave up a walk.
Overall this season, Best said he was “a little disappointed how we finished. We could’ve gone further.”
But, he said. “the kids should be proud of themselves. We had some fun.”
The team made some mistakes during the season, and it placed third with a 10-5 record in league and a 15-9 overall record.
First and third place in the Sky-Em League were separated by two games, and the Huskies tied for second place. They were third seed because second-place Sisters won two of three games against Sweet Home during the season.
The Huskies took Sky-Em Champion Junction City to 10 and 11 innings in two games they ultimately lost by one and two runs respectively. Against Sisters, they lost two games by one and two runs.
“The kids should be proud of themselves,” Best said.
The team loses four seniors, Holly, Anderson, Marler and James, to graduation this year.
Juniors Virtue and Smith will lead the team as seniors next year, Best said. “We’re going to have a good group coming back.”
The junior varsity lost just two games this season, he said, and the Huskies will fill in spots from that group.
“I think we’ll have a good shot at doing something special next year as well,” Best said.
Around the Sky-Em League, Sisters lost to Newport 4-1 in a play-in game Thursday. Junction City will host Phoenix in the first round of playoffs.
Sweet Home 210 000 0 – 3 5 3
Brookings 203 000 x – 5 7 3