Brown sparks victory Goody powers Old Town offense

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BREWER – Old Town’s Ryan Brown entered Friday afternoon’s playoff baseball game against Brewer with a gaudy record of success against the team he’d pitch against … and an elbow he didn’t know if he could trust.

In two previous meetings this season, the 6-foot-3 junior had allowed no runs in 15 innings of work and struck out 26 Brewer batters.

On Friday, Brown wasn’t quite that overpowering. But the right elbow tendinitis he’d been battling didn’t flare up … and he was still plenty good enough. Brown led the No. 3 Indians to a 6-3 win over the No. 2 Witches in a Class A Northeast Division semifinal.

Brown held the Witches to just three hits through six innings as the Indians piled up a 6-1 lead, then survived an eventful two-run seventh before inducing a game-ending groundout with two more Brewer players on base.

Brown’s line: a six-hitter with five strikeouts and four walks.

Old Town improves to 14-3-1 and will take on Cony in Augusta in a crossover semifinal today. Brewer finishes up 13-5.

“I was going into the game with the mindset that I had all year – that my elbow was feeling fine,” Brown said. “It didn’t bother me at all.”

Brown, who threw mostly fastballs, along with an occasional curve and a rare changeup, said the only change he could notice was that he didn’t have the same command of the strike zone that he had.

His coach had confidence that his ace would be ready to go.

“I had a feeling he was gonna be OK,” Old Town coach Matt Haney said. “He told me he could pitch on Tuesday … but I decided not to risk it. With the extra day and the rainout yesterday, [I thought] Ryan was probably in pretty good shape.”

Old Town tallied single runs in the third and fourth. The first came when No. 9 hitter Kevin Emerson singled, moved to second on a walk, reached third on a double play, and scored on a wild pitch.

Brown scored the second when he singled with two outs in the fourth and sprinted home on Brad Goody’s booming double to left.

Goody finished with two hits and three RBIs.

Brewer threatened to even the score in the fifth, as Matt Sargent looped a wind-blown double to shallow right and Zach Bouzan-Kaloustian reached on an infield single. Each moved up a base on a wild pitch.

Tony Doucette rapped what appeared to be a two-run single up the middle, but Old Town second baseman Jeremy Stormann flagged the ball down on a headlong dive and threw out Doucette by a step at first.

One run scored, but the play was crucial: The Indians had two outs, first base was open, and that allowed them to walk Brewer slugger Joel Barrett.

After Brown hit Chris Cote with a pitch to load the bases, Shawn Sutherland flied out to left to end the threat.

“That was the play of the game, really,” Brewer coach David Morris said of Stormann’s stab. “If the kid doesn’t make that play, then we’ve only got one out there and we tie it up. It does change the complexion of the game. He made a couple of great plays.”

Old Town tallied one more in the sixth and three in the seventh before Brewer scored two and made it interesting in the seventh.

INDIANS 6, WITCHES 3

Old Town (14-3-1) Brewer (13-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Rand, cf 3 0 0 0 Bzn-Kaloustian, ss 4 0

Pease, dh 4 0 0 0 Doucette, 2b 3 1 1

Stormann, 2b 0 0 0 0 Barrett, 1b-p 3 1 0

Tewhey, 3b 3 1 0 0 Cote, 3b 2 0 1

Cole, c 4 0 1 0 Sutherland, rf 3 0 1

Tidwell, ss 4 1 2 1 McAvoy, dh 4 0 0

Brown, p 3 2 1 0 King, 1b 0 0 0

a-Russell 0 1 0 0 Caldwell, c 3 0 0

Goody, 1b 2 0 2 3 Bell, lf 3 0 0

Guerrette, rf 1 0 0 0 Sargent, cf 2 0

b-Liepold 0 0 0 0

Emerson, lf 3 1 1 1

Totals 27 6 7 5 Totals 27 3 6 3

a-ran for Brown in sixth; b-hit by pitch for Guerrette in seventh

Old Town 001 101 3 ? 6

Brewer 000 010 2 ? 3

E?King; Tidwell; LOB?Old Town 10, Brewer 9; 2B?Goody; Sargent; DP?Bouzan-Kaloustian-Doucette-Barrett; SF?Emerson; SB?Cote

Old Town IP H R ER BB SO

Brown (W, 6-1) 7 6 3 3 4 5

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Patterson (L, 2-1) 3 2/3 4 2 2 2 3

Barrett 3 1/3 3 4 4 6 3

HBP?Cote by Brown 2, Liepold by Barrett; WP?Brown; Patterson, Barrett; PB?Caldwell 2; T?1:54; ATT?150 (est.)