There were any number of factors working against the Bradford Owls on their Senior Night on Thursday.
It was the team’s fourth game in as many days. They were facing an Otto-Eldred squad that came into the contest with a 13-3 record. And there also just happened to be a 40-minute weather delay in the middle of the game.
None of that seemed to matter to the Owls (7-12), as they were able to keep their focus and earn a come-from-behind 5-3 victory to send them into the playoffs on a high note.
“You’ve got to be proud of our pitchers this week,” Owls coach Andy Carlson said. “The most runs that we’ve given up was five, and you play four straight days in high school baseball, most teams don’t have the depth to do that.”
Indeed, over this brutal four-day stretch, the Bradford pitching staff has allowed just 13 total runs to the Terrors, Punxsutawney, Cameron County, and Elk Catholic.
On Thursday, it was Peyton Manion and Patrick Caskey who came up big on the mound. The two righties combined for 10 strikeouts while allowing just five hits and three walks.
“It was really a testament to the preparation our guys put in and their toughness,” Carlson said. “A couple guys pitched twice — having pitched in relief earlier this week — they came back today and pitched excellent against Otto.”
The Terrors struck first and they struck hard, posting a three-spot in the top of the second, with all three runs coming with two out in the inning.
With the bases loaded, Trent Windsor drove in the first run. He was quickly followed by Andrew Sheeler, who drove in two on a perfectly-placed ball to right-center field.
Otto was threatening again in the third inning with runners on second and third with one out. This time, however, Manion was able to work out of trouble to keep the deficit at three.
Bradford got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Dan Manion that drove in Adam Cary. Cary got the Owls another run in the fourth with a two-out RBI single that brought in Kyle Kirk to make it 3-2.
With the Terrors up to bat in the fifth inning, Mother Nature decided to step in. Some nearby thunder caused a nearly hour-long delay that led to some friendly competition of another kind between the two teams.
Both sides lined up a pair of helmets outside their respective dugouts, proceeding with a back-and-forth game of ‘golf’ involving the use of baseball bats as putters (for the record, Otto-Eldred was the only side that successfully sank a putt).
Rather than fret about his players keeping their focus, Carlson was content to let them stay loose.
“I really didn’t have much of a message at all [coming out of the delay],” he said. “If you noticed, the guys were having a lot of fun. They were loose, so that’s really the big thing. Our guys weren’t tight; if you’re tight, you’ve got to find a way to get loose and they were just like, ‘We got it, we got it, we’re all right.’”
With Caskey taking over on the mound after the delay, Bradford held the Terrors to nothing but zeroes over the final three innings.
After a scoreless fifth frame, the Owls were able to load the bases in the fourth thanks in large part to two perfect bunts by Kirk and Hunter Gray.
Fittingly on senior night, it was Cary — one of the six seniors honored before the game — who came to the plate for the pivotal at-bat. And in what would be the last home at-bat of his career, Cary didn’t disappoint, ripping a two-run single. Peyton Manion and pinch-runner Isaac Smith came in to score, and Bradford had itself a 4-3 lead.
The Owls weren’t done, though. Leadoff man Tyler Gigliotti was up next, and he too came up with a huge RBI base hit to score Derek Sunafrank.
The game wasn’t over yet, however. O-E regained its composure to get runners on first and second with one out in the top of the seventh.
But Caskey wasn’t to be denied, as he was able to induce a lineout to shortstop and then set the final batter down on strikes to close out the victory.
Before the game, Bradford honored its group of seniors consisting of Kirk, Cary, Jack Pecora, Tom Guay, Alex Kelley and Brendon Kelley.
As it currently stands, the Owls will travel to St. Marys on Tuesday to face the Dutch with first pitch scheduled for 4:30. Bradford should be very familiar with its playoff opponent: the Owls fell to St. Marys in nine innings 3-2 last Thursday after blanking the Dutch 2-0 the week before at the Elk Catholic Tournament.
“Baseball’s a funny game,” Carlson said. “We could win 15-0, they could win 15-0, or it could be a 2-1 barnburner. The latter is more likely because we’ve played them three times and each game’s been pretty close, interesting game.”
Regardless of how things play out, the Owls have to be comfortable with how well they’ve been playing recently.
“We’re going to go down there and give them our best shot and see what happens,” Carlson said.
At BRADFORD
R H E
Otto-Eldred 020 000 0 3 5 2
Bradford 001 103 X 5 8 1
Chase Sebastian (4 SO, 2 BB), and Seth Drummond
Peyton Manion (7 SO, 3 BB), Patrick Caskey (5) (3 SO), and Caleb Nuzzo
