ELDRED — In a battle of aces, it was Otto-Eldred’s Garrett Brugh who got the best of Ryan Corbett and Smethport — barely.
Brugh was in command for most of Wednesday, mixing his pitches and hitting his spots to the tune of 13 strikeouts as the Terrors picked up their first win of the season, 3-2 over Smethport, which suffered its first loss.
“He was excellent,” said Otto-Eldred coach Jame Thomas. “When he got down he fought back into the count and helped himself out.”
Brugh also helped himself at the plate, delivering a bloop RBI single past the diving attempt of Smethport second baseman B.A. Sizemore for the first run of the game in the third inning to score Hobie Milliron.
“They weren’t necessarily line drives, but they got the job done,” Thomas said.
It looked for a while as if that was all Brugh was going to need.
He struck out a pair in a quick top of the fourth, and the Terrors were able to take advantage of a Smethport miscue in the bottom half of the inning.
Corbett threw a lot of pitches — 98 in five innings — but proved to be effective for most of his outing, working out of several key jams.
It looked as if he was going to escape a major jam in the fourth, getting Milliron to strike out with the bases loaded and one out.
However, during Milliron’s at-bat, shortstop Ryan Nielsen was injured attempting to come up with a foul ball, forcing the Smethport infield to shift around a couple of positions.
The next batter, Sam Colebert, hit a grounder to short, but the throw was errant, allowing Dakota Eaton and Seth Bigley to score, making the score 3-0.
“Our guys have some things we need to work on,” said Smethport coach Brian Lawson. “I thought our pitching was strong. Ryan (Nielsen) wanted to go back in the game; he’s just a tough, hard-nosed kid.”
As it turned out, those runs proved to be vital for the Terrors (2-1).
Brugh cruised through the fifth inning, throwing just nine pitches, but ran into trouble in the sixth.
Ryan Burdick, who entered the game for Nielsen, started the sixth with a walk, which was followed by an infield single from Corbett.
Brugh appeared as if he might escape damage, getting the 3-4 hitters, Ryan Stratton and Zetwick, to bounce back to the mound and foul-out, but Mike Deluca had other ideas.
Delucca, on a 2-2 pitch, had easily the hardest hit ball of the afternoon into the right-centerfield gap for a two-run double, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
“That may have been the only hard hit ball all day,” Lawson said.
Brugh, however, settled down, getting Bryce Nelson to groundout to third.
“I think that hit brought him back down to earth a little bit,” Thomas said.
The southpaw proceeded to work around a one-out walk in the seventh, striking out the side on 15 pitches to earn the complete game victory.
“He’s a good pitcher, and he kept our guys off-balance,” Lawson said.
Brugh struck out at least two batters in five of his seven innings, and allowed three walks while throwing 99 pitches, 64 for strikes.
Corbett, meanwhile, was charged with three runs (one earned) in his five innings of work, while Zetwick pitched a scoreless sixth.
“You can’t take anything away from Ryan, he’s an excellent pitcher and is going to get his fair share of wins this year,” Thomas said.
Otto-Eldred is back in action today at Archbishop Walsh, while Smethport hosts Galeton Friday in a game that was originally scheduled today for Galeton.
Linescore
Smethport 000 002 0—2
Otto-Eldred 001 200 X—3
2B — Mike Deluca (Smethport); SB — Sam Colebert (O); LOB — Smethport 4; Otto-Eldred 9; Errors — Smethport 1; Otto-Eldred 0
IP H R ER BB SO
Smethport
Ryan Corbett (L) 5 5 3 1 2 7
Dustin Zetwick 1 0 0 0 1 1
Otto-Eldred
Garrett Brugh 7 3 2 2 3 13
