Long Balls Lift Bucks Over Braves

By Leyton Pullin
On Saturday July 24 the Clover Hill Bucks defeated the Montezuma Braves 13-0 in 7 innings. The Bucks hit 4 homeruns on the way to victory.

Clover Hill hopped on top of the scoreboard right away in the top of the first as Josh Eberly opened the bottom of the 1st with a single. Drew Easter singled later in the inning to push Eberly around to third and put runners at the corners with one out. Bryce Suters came up later in the inning and hit a hard groundball to short stop that died on its way to Isiah Blanks allowing Suters to reach and Eberly to score putting the Bucks up 1-0.

The Bucks went back to work in the 2nd inning putting two more runs across on a Jacob Grabeel 2 RBI single to score Ross French and Tanner Montgomery to extend the Bucks lead to 3-0.

The Bucks came up to the plate in the third and loaded the bases on a Cole Jenkins single and back-to-back walks by French and Montgomery. Jenkins was able to score on a wild pitch one of the four thrown by Montezuma starter Grant Thomas to stretch the lead to 4-0.

Again, the Bucks would load the bases with no outs in the 4th inning this time on three singles by John Siciliano, Tyler Conley, and Cody Swisher. Suters came up next and worked a hard-earned walk with a full count to drive in Siciliano to stretch the Bucks lead to 5-0. The Bucks would then leave the bases stranded as Kyle Armstrong came into the game for the Braves and retired the next three hitters in order.

The 5th inning is where the Bucks really did their damage. Clover Hill pushed across 7 runs in the inning off of 6 total hits, 4 of those were home runs. Eberly started the scoring hitting a 2 Run Home Run to left center to score he and Grabeel. Bryce Suters added a 3 Run Home Run of his own to score he, Swisher and Siciliano. Jenkins and French then added back-to-back solo shots to end the homer parade but not before the game had been blown open putting the Bucks out in front 12-0.

Clover Hill again added another run in the 6th as Ross French walked with the bases loaded to score Alex Knicely and stretch the lead out to 13-0.

The Braves went to the plate in the top of the 7th knowing they needed 4 runs to keep the game going but had to face Clover Hill “Hammer” Tucker Hrasky. The lefty tallied three punchouts in the bottom of the 7th only allowing one base runner in the form of his former Bridgewater College Keegan Oliver who walked but was stranded when the game came to a close due to the 10-run rule 13-0.

For Montezuma they drop to 12-9 to end the regular season. The Braves are locked into the No. 4 seed for the post season and will take on the No. 5 Seeded Broadway Bruins (9-11) in the opening round of the RCBL Playoffs starting Tuesday July 27 with game one of the series being in Montezuma at a time to be announced. The series will be best of three games.
​
The Bucks pick up the win and control their own destiny when it comes to playoff seeding. Jacob Grabeel (2-0) picks up the win on the mound after 1.0 IP for the Bucks The Bucks (13-7) keep their hopes of landing the No. 2 seed in the playoffs alive as they can clinch it with a win over Elkton (4-16) on Sunday July 25 at 7:30 PM in Elkton. With Stuarts Draft’s win tonight, the Bucks could fall to the No. 3 spot with a loss.