By DOUG EADS, CJ Sports Writer
Somerset — To quote the line from that famous standup duo of Abbott and Costello, “Who really was on first base?”
That was probably the question on a lot of people’s minds yesterday, when the Somerset Briar Jumpers and Southwestern Warriors hooked up on a Saturday afternoon in the Warrior Classic.
After taking a 2-0 lead over their arch-rival in the top half of the first inning, Somerset skipper Phil Grundy and the Briar Jumpers would have probably been better off to have gotten on the bus and departed for Destin, Florida a day early.
The Jumpers were guilty of 7 errors in the game, and walked 10 Southwestern batters, and the Warriors took advantage.
Ryan Branscum pitched a complete game, one-hitter, and the Warriors cruised for a 12-2 victory in five innings, to improve their record to 3-2 on the season.
And, this game got off to one, wacky start at the beginning of the contest.
The first inning saw the following: 32 minutes of baseball, 5 errors, 6 runs, 1 hit, and 1 ejection; both clubs were throwing the baseball all over the ole’ ball yard in an ugly affair.
When the dust had cleared, the Warriors were on top after one inning, 4-2, and Grundy had been sent to an early shower, getting ejected by the home plate umpire for arguing balls and strikes in the bottom half of the inning.
“I probably didn’t help matters today by getting ejected in the first inning, but you’ve got to stand up for your players,” Grundy stated after the contest.
“I thought it was consistently bad both ways, but when it’s consistently taking pitcher’s counts, and turning them into hitter’s counts, and we don’t ring up hitters on strike three calls, I’ve got to stand up and say something,” added the Jumper skipper. “I know there is no arguing balls and strikes with an umpire, but if they’re not going to ring guys up, then it needs to be changed.”
Southwestern wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire defensively in this one, as the game got underway.
The Warriors committed three errors themselves in the first couple of innings, paving the way for the Jumpers to take a quick, 2-0 lead.
Branscum fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first, in large measure due to two Warrior errors in the field.
Matt Salmons had an RBI groundout to plate the first Jumper run, and later in the frame, Adam Wallen came home on a throwing error by Southwestern’s catcher, Mike Jones.
At that point, the Jumpers had a 2-0 cushion on Branscum and company. However, that lead would be very short-lived against the Warriors pitching ace.
The “Ryan Express” did not allow the Jumpers anything else on the day. Branscum turned in his second quality start in as many tries on the season, as he went 5 innings, allowing Somerset just one hit, while striking out 9 batters and 3 walks.
“We still have some immaturity on the team, and we’ve just got some young guys that don’t know how to get their heads ready to play a game,” noted Warrior head coach Rodney McAninch.
“We have to get rid of these stupid errors that we’re committing,” said McAninch. “It’s not that they cost us runs, but what they do cost us is pitching counts, because I don’t want pitching counts to go sky-high. I challenged Ryan a little bit today, because he runs his pitch count up a little bit and gets behind hitters, and has to work back. I want Ryan to get ahead and stay ahead in the count.”
Down 2-0, the Warriors came right back and took the lead on Somerset, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the first off of the Jumpers starter and loser Jordy Molen.
Molen deserved a better fate on the day in this one, as the defense behind him let him down. While he did walk 8 Warrior batters in his three innings of work, his defense certainly didn’t help the cause, committing 7 errors on the day.
The only hit Molen surrendered in the first inning was a single by Branscum, but that didn’t score a run.
That hit by Branscum did load the bases with nobody out, and paved the way for the flood gates to open up.
Brandon Hranicky drew a walk with the bases juiced, bringing home the first run of the afternoon for Southwestern. Eric Rice followed Hranicky with an RBI groundout, knotting the score at 2-2.
Mike Lewis reached base on a Somerset error that scored the third run of the frame, and Mike Jones followed him with a bases loaded walk, and the Warriors were up 4-2 after one inning of play.
“We’ve got to throw strikes, and when you get behind in the count early on, and your defense becomes lackadaisical and they’re not focused, it makes it hard on you,” Grundy stated. “The infielders have got to want the ball hit to them, and right now, we’ve simply got a couple of guys that don’t want the ball hit to them, and that’s frustrating to me. Coach (Taylor) Tohill is one of the best infield coaches around anywhere, he hits a ton of balls to them on the infield, and I just don’t understand it.”
As for the way Branscum threw the ball against his team after the first inning, Grundy for one, was very impressed with the Warrior right hander; albeit he had to watch the game from the parking lot.
“This is a game we can’t do too much about, because when you get two runs on Ryan Branscum, you had better hold on to that lead,” stated Grundy. “He gets tougher as the game goes on, he’s a great competitor, and I just tip my hat to Southwestern today, because they came out and swung the bats and were aggressive against our pitcher. We’ll just have to see what we do down the road against them.”
Leading 4-2, the Warriors gave Branscum more than enough run support on this day, taking advantage of three more Somerset errors in the second inning, scoring 4 times, blowing the game wide open at 8-2.
The only hit in the frame was off the bat of Mike Lewis, who had a run-scoring single in the inning for the Warriors.
Southwestern tacked on a pair of runs in the third inning, to take a 10-2 lead, and ended the contest in the bottom half of the fifth, when Lewis hit a two-run single off of Scott Moody, who had came on in relief of Molen in the fourth inning.
“All in all, this is a good win for us, but I don’t think by any stretch we can say that we saw the real Somerset team here today,” McAninch stated. “I know that Somerset is really young, but I like their talent, and I know they have got a real good future, the same as us.”
“Just like us, they have to find the consistency and quit making the immature mistakes,” pointed out the Warrior skipper. “I think both our teams are a lot alike.”
Molen took the loss for the Jumpers, surrendering only 3 hits, but giving up 8 walks to the Warriors in his three innings of work.
Offensively, Chris Fitzpatrick got the Jumpers’ lone hit of the game; a leadoff single in the top of the second inning.
Southwestern meanwhile, was led by Mike Lewis with a pair of hits and 3 RBI’s, while Eric Rice drove in 4 runs, and shortstop Kirby Mayer walked three times and scored 3 runs for the Warriors.
Somerset leaves today for Destin, Florida, where the Jumpers will play several games over the next week in the Sunshine state.
Southwestern will return to action tomorrow afternoon hosting the Cawood Trojans at 5:45 p.m.
TEAM R H E
Somerset 2 1 7
S’West 12 5 3
TRIPLES—Rice 1
RBI’s—SW—Rice 4, Lewis 3, Hranicky 1, Wilson 1, SHS—Salmons 1
WP—Branscum 2-0
LP—Molen 1-1
