By TOM NYHUIS
Niles Daily Star

In a Lakeland Conference showdown on the ball diamonds Wednesday afternoon it was Buchanan hitting the road and taking on host Brandywine in baseball and softball action.

In hardball the two rival teams split the pair of games with Brandywine taking a 7-6 win in game one and the Bucks bouncing back to take the second game 6-1.

Over on the softball field it was the Lady Bucks coming from behind to take an eight-inning 2-1 win in the opener and blasting the host Bobcats 10-0 in five innings in the nightcap.

Kyle King picked up the win in game one for Brandywine going six innings, but it wasn’t a sure thing until Dustin Bell came in for the save in the seventh.

The Bobcats had to come from behind for the second time in the game in the bottom of the sixth.

“We tip our hat to Kyle King on a great game,” Buchanan Joe Racht said after taking the split. “We feel like we gave the game to them. We had four unearned runs in the first game and whenever you give a decent team four runs it’s going to be hard to win games. But we felt that it was there for us to win and we gave it away. It was a tough loss and it could come back big for the conference title in the end.”

Trailing 6-5 in the sixth, the Bobcats were given a gift by the visiting Bucks. A fly ball to right field with two runners on and two out was dropped by Nick Troxel allowing the tying and go ahead runs to score.

That is when Bell came in and shut the Bucks down in the seventh to seal the victory for the home team.

Brandywine grabbed the early lead in the first inning as Derek Nichols belted a two-run shot over the right field fence.

“He is a real key guy and he has been swinging the bat great,” Brandywine coach David Sidenbender said of his first baseman. “He has a couple of home runs already this year and about 20 RBI so he has been swinging the bat real good for us.”

Buchanan answered with three runs in the top of the second. The Bobcats scored a pair of runs in the third to take a 4-3 lead and added one in the fourth on a balk called on relief pitcher Tony Parris who came in for starter David Sokolowski in the fourth. A three-run sixth by Buchanan put the Bucks up 6-5.

Bryan Kuntz and Richie Reed each picked up a double and a single and Sololowski picked up a pair of singles.

“The way we battled back after we had given it up was big and we did it twice. Get a lead, give it up, get a lead, give it up. It was big for us to put the ball in play and make them make plays too. We didn’t give up and I thought our pitching was good enough to win two today, we just didn’t field the ball,” Sidenbender said.

In the nightcap the Bucks bounced back for a 6-1 win with a 5-run third inning and paced by Kuntz on the mound who threw a complete game picking up seven strikeouts to improve to 3-0 on the year.
“One inning killed us,” Sidenbender said of the game two loss. “We just didn’t field the ball and we gave up five runs.”

Kuntz also led the team at the plate reaching on all four of his plate appearances, picking up three singles and a walk with two stolen bases and two runs scored.

“We had Bryan on the mound and he has been a shutdown pitcher for us this year. He’s 3-0 and every time he pitches we feel like we have our best chance to win with him on the mound. He is a leader on this team,” Racht said.

Tyler Powers and Dalton Shearer each added a pair of singles for the Bucks.

Softball
If the visiting Lady Bucks didn’t learn anything from Wednesday’s doubleheader sweep of host Brandywine ,they may have trouble down the road.

Coming out ready to play will be key for Buchanan in order to contend for the league crown.

For five innings in the day’s opening game the Lady ‘Cats held a slim 1-0 lead looking to hand out a league loss to the Lady Bucks.

“We played our game in the first game,” Brandywine coach Angie Mellott said. “We didn’t make errors, we played as a team, we worked hard and we got on base and we put the pressure on them. In the eighth we got runners on but we just didn’t execute and couldn’t get them across.”

“I don’t know where we were for the first game,” Buchanan coach Mike Welsh said at the end of the doubleheader. “You try telling the kids that we have a target on our backs and people are going to give us their best shot and Brandywine played a heck of a game. They had us on the ropes and could have gotten us. Good teams have to find a way to win and we found a way to win.”

It took a triple by Brianna Turnock and a sacrifice by Rachel Downs in the sixth inning to tie the game and a single by Erin Glavin and a RBI double by Downs to take an eight-inning win.

Alexis Lenox picked up the win in the circle allowing just two hits in the one-run first inning by the Bobcats. She also picked up 14 strikeouts.

“She is tough,” Welsh said of his ace. “You’re going to be in every game when she is throwing.”

Brande Overholt gave up eight hits in the loss striking out eight batters.

Jayla Carrigan added a pair of singles in the win for the Lady Bucks.

Buchanan scored 10 runs in the first three innings as five batters had multi-hits in the game. Glavin ripped a triple and a single while Turnock, Downs, Julia LaBounty and Jacklynn Leiter each had a pair of singles to lead the Lady Bucks’ 13-hit attack at the plate.

Once again after giving up two hits in the opening inning, Lenox shut down the Bobcats the rest of the way striking out 10 in the five-inning contest.

Mikayla Kemp took the loss going two innings giving up five runs on five hits. Overholt finished the game allowing another five runs on five hits.

“In the second game we just fell apart. We made to many errors. Once we make an error, we get down the whole team gets down. We have a very young infield. Freshmen and sophomores with one junior and we just need someone to step up and we have to work on that in practice,” Mellot said.

First game
Buchanan 030 003 0 – 6 9 4
Brandywine 202 102 0 – 7 5 1
WP- Kyle King and Austin Searles
LP- Tony Parris
Save- Dustin Bell

Second game
Buchanan 005 0001 – 6 10 1
Brandywine 000 100 0 – 1  5  2
WP- Bryan Kuntz
LP- Dustin Bell
Varsity records: Buchanan 4-2, 2-1 Lakeland; Brandywine 6-4, 1-1 Lakeland