Sports
Braves in thick of hunt at Region 5 tournament
Tyler Ohmann
05/22/2012
A win over Bishop Ryan on Monday, a no-hit blowout over Dunseith in a region play-in game on Friday and a region tournament win over Rugby kept the Bottineau Braves baseball team’s perfect region record intact this past week.
First on Monday the Braves used pitching and defense to restrain a Bishop Ryan team looking for momentum heading into the region playoffs. Bottineau won 6-3.
After allowing two runs in the first inning, senior Justin McCloud settled down and began retiring batters and pitched all seven innings, striking out nine Lions.
Offensively the Braves hammered Lions starter Jay Mittleider for six runs in the first four innings.
Sheldon Marmon came on for relief in the fourth, but the six runs were enough for the Braves.
The duo of Andrew Hill and Cody Brooks provided the fire power at the plate. Hill went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs batted in (RBI). Brooks was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI.
McCloud also went 2-for-4 at the dish.
Austin Eggl led the Lions with a 2-for-3 effort and two RBI.
Coming off the big win on Monday the Braves clobbered the Dunseith Dragons on Friday. The top-seeded Braves pounded 16 hits to score 23 runs in five innings and Lee Schneider through his second no-hitter of the season. Schneider went all five-innings without allowing a hit and struck out nine.
The sophomore also went a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate with a double and two RBI.
Also having good nights at the dish were Hill (3-for-4, four runs), Brock Hiltner (2-for-2 two runs) and Luke Amsbaugh (2-for-3, two runs). Each of the trio of hitters also had an RBI.
The Braves advanced to Monday’s region playoff game in Surrey. They played at 11 a.m., against fourth-seeded Rugby.
The Panthers defeated No. 5 Surrey 9-0 in Rugby on Friday to advance.
In Monday’s game McCloud hit a two-run, walk-off home run to beat the Panthers 4-2 in the opener of the tournament.
LaCroix pitched for the Braves, going all seven innings. He allowed two runs on three hits.
Bottineau then played North Star at 5 p.m. and Rugby played Bishop Ryan at 3 p.m. Results were unavailable by press time.