Bush Walks It Off for Draft

By Leyton Pullin
The Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks opened up their second round series with the Broadway Bruins in an excitement filled game that ended up in their favor 7-6 in 10 innings and ended on a Grayson Bush walk off single.

Broadway broke the scoring open right out of the gate as Justin Lohr led the game off with a single and later scored as Caleb Taylor singled to put the Bruins on top 1-0 before the D-Backs got to the plate.

Stuarts Draft bounced back in the bottom half of the 1st as Zach Roberts led of with a double. Will Hass came to the plate next and lifted a ball to left center field that Trent Abernathy tracked to the wall but could not leap high enough as it got out of the park for a 2-run home run and put Stuarts Draft in front 2-1.

Stuarts Draft added 3 more in the 2nd inning as Grayson Bush, Calen Owens and Jack Pausic all had RBI base knocks to stretch the lead to 5-1.

The Bruins started to crawl back in the top of the 3rd inning as Trevor Vernon plunked Justin Lohr to start the inning. Trevor Thomas followed later in the inning and singled to put corners on the bases with one out. Next to the plate was Taylor who delivered again with a RBI double to score Lohr. Devon Neal came up next and grounded out to Roberts but still allowed Thomas to score and make it a 5-3 game.

Vernon cruised through the top of the 5th striking out the first two hitter he faced in the inning. That was when the trouble would start for Vernon as the next three batters reached and loaded the bases with two outs. Ben Hutcheson came up next and worked a full count walk to force Taylor across for the first run of the inning. Ben Reid came up next and also walked allowing Neal to score and tie the game at 5-5. That would signal the end of Vernon’s night as Liam Kehoe would come in to record the final out of the inning.

Stuarts Draft would break the tie in the bottom of the 7th as Broadway went to the bullpen and Trent Abernathy went to the hill. Hass would work a walk with one out in the inning. After a Pausic fly out for the second out Cody Bartley came to the plate and ripped a ball to the opposite field that slowly made its way to the wall allowing for Hass to round third and head for the plate and just beat out the throw from Lohr in right field to put the D-Backs on top 6-5.

The Bruins tried to respond in the top of the 8th as they loaded the base up with two outs all on walks. The Bruins would leave the bases jammed however as Jayden Nixon flew out to right field to end the inning.

Stuarts Draft went to Chandis Goff in the 9th to try and close it out, however Broadway had other ideas. Hutcheson came to the plate to lead off the inning and drove a liner right back where it came from for a single. Reid came up next and chopped one up the middle that got away from Roberts at second to put two on. Isaac Vandemeter would line out to Pausic for the first out in the inning. Next up came Lohr who drew a four pitch walk to load the bases for Abernathy. That would signal the end for Goff and Cody Bartley would get the call to try and close the came out for the D-Backs. Bartley would strike out Abernathy after a lengthy at bat and bring Trevor Thomas to the plate. The second pitch to Thomas bounced away from WIlcher behind the plate allowing Hutcheson to come home and score unearned to tie the game at 6-6.

The D-Backs would get two on base with back-to-back walks by Roberts and Hass before Abernathy recovered and struck out Pausic and got Bartley to ground into a fielders choice to send the game into the extra frame.

The Bruins were retired in order in the top half of the 10th. Stuarts Draft saw their first two hitters of the inning Bob Funk and Tyler Wilcher retired on strikes before Doug Pollack put a ball in play to the left side of the infield and beat out the throw to first to reach safely with an infield hit. Grayson Bush came to the plate next looking to extend or even end the game. Bush get behind in the count 0-2 to Abernathy and then the next pitch Pollack took off for second and stole the bag putting himself in scoring position. The next pitch Bush lined a ball to right field just over the head of the second baseman that would roll all the way to the wall allowing Pollack to score easily and walk it off for the D-Backs.

Cody Bartley picks up the win on the mound for Stuarts Draft in an outing that was not originally planned according to manager Les Sandridge. “We had to burn through some pitching tonight we had not planned on,” said Sandridge. Offensively for the D-Backs Will Hass and Grayson Bush each had 2 RBIs.

Trent Abernathy takes the loss for the Bruins after giving up 2 earned runs despite striking out 9 in four innings of work. AT the plate for the Bruins Caleb Taylor went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs leading the offensive attack for Chip Abernathy and company.

Game 2 will take place on Sunday August 1 at 6:30 PM at Broadway High School as Stuarts Draft leads the series 1-0.