The Cleveland Blue Raiders may have hit East Hamilton with a case of the Monday blues to start the week, but Tuesday was a new day on the baseball diamond for the Hurricanes.
A day after being shut out 8-0 at Cleveland by Blue Raiders ace Camden Sewell, East Hamilton evened the District 5-AAA seriies with a 6-2 win at home. The six-run, seven-hit outburst on the heels of two hits and 13 strikeouts the night before was a welcome sight for Hurricanes coach Steve Garland.
"Man, I'm just tickled," Garland said. "We have a really young team, and we easily could have come in with a negative mindset after last night. There's a lot of fight in our guys."
Josh Brown helped set the tone in the first inning for East Hamilton. Brown reached on a bunt single and later scored on a wild pitch for the game's first run.
"That's pretty indicative of what our team is going to have to be this year," Garland said. "We attacked and were super aggressive early. That's how we have to be."
East Hamilton kept the pressure on, jumping out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the fifth inning. Starting pitcher Chuck Bronson did his part with the run support, holding Cleveland scoreless until the sixth.
Cleveland had all eight runs in four innings the night before, putting up four runs in the second and three in the fourth.
"A different team showed up to the ballpark tonight," Blue Raiders coach Preston Scoggins said. "Momentum shifted to their dugout early on, and we never got it back. We booted it around a little bit, didn't make plays and didn't come up with the big hit.
"I commend their guys for bringing it today after a tough loss last night. We have to do a better job ourselves after a big win of being prepared and staying humble and staying hungry."
Cleveland had opportunities, loading the bases in both the fifth and sixth innings, but despite some shaky moments with his command, Bronson kept his cool.
With the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, freshman Blaine Savage caught a line drive at shortstop and quickly fired to third to double off the Cleveland runner who strayed too far from the bag. Bronson got the next batter to fly out to left field to end the inning.
Kellye Cawood led off the Cleveland half of the sixth with an infield single and scored when Ethan Jones was hit by a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded. Bronson then limited the damage by inducing another inning-ending flyout, this time to center field.
"I couldn't be more proud of Chuck Bronson," Garland said. "He flat out wants it. He's remade his physique, and he really delivered today. It says a lot about his guts."
East Hamilton added insurance runs after squashing each bases-loaded threat, with one in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Jerrod Price relieved Bronson in the seventh, allowing an unearned run before securing the win. Bronson scattered five hits over his six innings, allowing just one run and striking out five.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.