Bradford baseball splits double header against Riverside

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By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

BRADFORD — The Bradford High School baseball team was able to fit in a double header in the windy conditions on April 1. The Railroaders split the two games against Riverside High School at home.

Coming into the games at 3-0, Bradford continued their winning streak. In the first inning, junior Tucker Miller started the game with a leadoff triple. Sophomore Owen Canan scored Miller on a sacrifice fly. To start the second inning, junior Garrett Trevino led off with a triple and junior Hudson Hill drove him in on a RBI single.

After a sacrifice fly from sophomore Treyl Manuel, Bradford was up 3-0 after two innings.

The offense exploded for six runs in the bottom of the third inning. Junior Landon Wills and senior Landon Monnin hit back to back singles to start the rally. Then one batter after another, they drove in runs.

Head coach Bill Sturwold said he feels they have a good batting lineup throughout, even with some younger guys playing.

“We’re pretty solid one through nine. We’re pretty young, we got some young guys,” Sturwold said.

Riverside did score two runs in the top of the fifth inning. However, Bradford got those runs back and ended the game in the fifth on a wild pitch to win 12-2.

Wills pitched all five innings and racked up 10 strikeouts. The team also played great defense behind him.

Then things changed in game two. Riverside scored a run in the first inning, but then Bradford responded. The Railroaders scored five runs in the first. Riverside responded with a run in the second, but so did Bradford to make it 6-2 heading into the third inning.

Riverside then started to take over the game. They scored a run to make it 6-3. After holding Bradford scoreless in the third, Riverside tacked on five runs in the fourth to go up 8-6. They scored six more runs in the next two innings to go up 14-6 entering the bottom of the sixth.

Sturwold said some of pains of playing young guys showed. While Riverside did well at the plate, Bradford let them have some free offense.

“We opened the door up for them. We’re up 6-2 and we get an error at second, catcher is letting balls get through, too many free bases. We did it to ourselves. Granted, Riverside had some good at-bats,” Sturwold said.

Bradford did score three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Monnin hit a two-run triple and senior Brendan Baker hit a RBI single.

The Railroaders let up four more runs in the top of the seventh and suffered their first loss of the season, 18-9. Bradford went through a stable of pitchers in game two.

Baker and Monnin finished with three RBI in the two games. Canan, Trevino, Manuel and freshman Colton Gambill each had two RBI in the double header. Tucker finished with three extra base hits and a RBI in the two games.

After one week of the new season, Bradford is 4-1. Sturwold said it has been a good start for the team. They will have two conference games coming up. They travel to Ansonia on April 4 and host Tri-County North on April 6. Both games are slated for a 5 p.m. start.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]

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