It wasn’t the start the Bradford baseball team was hoping for, but coach Eric Haynoski still saw some positives and plenty of things for the team to improve on.
After taking a 5-2 lead against Brookville during the Owls’ season opener Tuesday at Pitt-Bradford, Bradford surrendered back-to-back six-run innings en route to a 14-6 defeat.
“We broke down there fundamentally. We didn’t make strong plays fundamentally … it was obvious,” Haynoski said. “We gave up a lot of runs that way. We had six walks in one inning with two errors when it was 5-2 in the fourth inning and it buried us at that point.”
Bradford started out strong as Austen Davis retired Brookville in order to start things off in the first. The Owls, who were down six players due to Covid protocols, then took a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning. Dalton Dixon got on base with a single and stole second before eventually scoring the first run of Bradford’s season.
An RBI double from Brett Skaggs followed, and he would eventually score after a Brookville error.
But throwing and fielding errors began to cost Bradford in the third inning when a routine base hit resulted in a pair of runs and Brookville cutting its deficit down to a run.
“I think Cam (Austin) had a great throw from right field into third base, but we didn’t have the cutoff set up there,” Haynoski said. “We had a lot of mental breakdowns — stuff we’ve worked on all through the year in practice and we didn’t execute well when it came down to our defensive fundamentals.”
The Owls (0-1) answered back in the bottom of the third with Ashton Smith reaching base on an infield single and Skaggs and Nolan Roulo each scoring, but that was Bradford’s last gasp offensively. Dixon, Roulo and Skaggs each had two hits for Bradford.
Brookville then piled on six runs during the fourth to take an 8-5 lead, highlighted by two two-run RBI singles from Carson Weaver and Hunter Geer and errors from the Owls defensively. The Raiders (1-1) then poured it on in the fifth with another six-run inning with Chase Palmer, Griffin Ruhlman and Jamison Rhoades all batting in runs.
Overall, Brookville scored 14 runs on 14 hits and committed four errors, while Bradford scored six runs on seven hits with five total errors.
Despite the loss and defensive errors, Haynoski saw the team apply what they’ve been working on in practice, such as being aggressive at the plate and in baserunning.
“I told them I was excited about what I saw. I didn’t have to tell them one time to go up there with the proper mindset, they were all ready to swing the bat and they did a great job. If they saw a strike, they were swinging … we had three strikeouts the entire game which is a huge improvement from two years ago. If we hit the ball like we did today and clean up our defensive mistakes, I think we come out on top.”
And that’s exactly what Haynoski and his coaching staff will be preaching during practices ahead of next Tuesday’s game at Brockway.
With the team’s first game since 2019 down, the Owls will look to build off the positives and improve on the negatives in search of their first victory next Tuesday.
“We’ll clean it up. I have faith in them. I have all the confidence in the world,” Haynoski said. “We’ve got a great bunch of kids. They’re smart, they got a lot of energy. They’re not a team that’s going to quit.”
AT BRADFORD
R H E
Brookville 002 660 0 14 14 4
Bradford 302 001 0 6 7 5
Brookville: Hunter Roney (2 SO, 1 BB), Taylor Zmitravich (4) (1 SO, 1 BB), Bay Harper (5) (2 SO, 1 BB) and Jamison Rhoades
Bradford: Austen Davis (4 SO, 6 BB), Nolan Roulo (4) (1 BB, 2 SO), Ashton Smith (5) (2 SO, 2 BB), Cam Austin (7) (1 SO) and Calvin Minich
