By By ERIKA PICKLES / Dowagiac Daily News
NILES - The Brandywine baseball team suffered its fourth loss of the season Tuesday afternoon at home against South Bend Clay, 13-4.
The game was originally supposed to be played at Clay, but was switched to Brandywine due to field problems.
Brandywine, now 0-4, had a lot of problems on defense with some errors and missed grounders which allowed Clay to score some easy runs.
So was this a typical spring break game? Brandywine coach Dave Sidenbender said he wasn't sure what it was. "We've been playing so well defensively until today. I hope it's just an aboration."
Clay scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, the Colonials scored another five runs to give them a 7-0 lead.
The Bobcats were finally able to score three runs in the top of the third and two in the top of the fourth to put them on the board, but Clay scored four more runs in the bottom of the fourth to put them up 11-4.
Clay's Charlton Keultjes was hit by a pitch from Jake Harris in the bottom of the fifth inning. Michael O'Neil hit a ground ball to Harris, but an error at first base advanced O'Neil to second and allowed Keultjes to score to keep the Colonials up by eight runs, 12-4. Another error by Brandywine allowed O'Neil to score to make it 13-4.
Brandywine travels to the Bronson Tournament this weekend.
Games are set to begin at 10 a.m.
Brandywine 002 200 0 - 4 4 5
South Bend Clay 250 420 x - 13 8 3
Zach Bennett (L, 0-2), Jake Harris, Justin Ely, Mike Sobol (W, 1-0), Tyler Szymczak, Michael O'Neil
2B: J.D. Miller (B), Alex Newman (B), Nate Najdek (C)
Varsity records: Brandywine 0-4, Clay 2-0