Witches top Eagles to improve to 12-2 Cushing, balanced attack spark Brewer

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BREWER – A season that began with 12 exhibition games over six days in Florida is evolving into a focused charge toward postseason play for the Brewer High baseball team.

The Class A Witches opted for the methodical approach to victory Wednesday night, backing the pitching of sophomore righthander Corey Cushing with solid defense and an 11-hit attack to top Class B Ellsworth 11-1 in a five-inning game at Heddericg Field.

“Tonight we got beat by a really good team,” said Ellsworth coach Dana Smith. “Brewer’s a quality team.”

The win was Brewer’s eighth in its last nine games, and included no signs of a letdown in the aftermath of the Witches’ point-worthy doubleheader sweep of Hampden Academy last Saturday.

“Coming off two big wins like we had and then with two days off with just practices, we wanted to make sure we didn’t overlook anyone and keep things in perspective,” said Brewer coach David Morris.

Eight of Brewer’s nine starters had at least one hit. The ninth, sophomore catcher Mitchell Peasley, walked twice, hit a sacrifice fly, stole a base and threw out two potential base stealers.

It’s a balanced approach that has the 12-2 Witches in a good frame of mind as the playoffs draw near.

“This team started growing when we went to Florida during preseason,” said senior second baseman Kevin Kotredes. “Since we got back we’ve faced a lot of good pitchers, but we were ready because we saw good pitchers in Florida.

“We know what we need to do, and everything’s been clicking.”

Cushing allowed 6-6 Ellsworth just four singles while striking out six, walking no one and hitting a batter.

“Corey pitched a very, very good game,” Morris said. “He kept the ball down, worked the ball inside and outside. His pitch count was low and he had a good defense behind him.”

Kotredes, Andy Otis and Andrew Patterson each had two singles and two RBIs for Brewer, with Matt Grimes also driving in a pair of runs.

The Witches took a 2-0 lead in the second on Peasley’s sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Otis. A double by Kevin McAvoy followed by an RBI single by Kotredes extended the lead to 3-0 in the third.

Brewer sent eight batters to the plate to score three runs in the fourth inning, a rally highlighted by am RBI single to center by Kotredes and a sacrifice fly by Miller after the Witches loaded the bases with one out.

Singles by Andy Berry and Nate Jordan and a walk to Cory Smith loaded the bases for Ellsworth with no one out in the top of the fifth, and Matt Peasley then was hit by a pitch to force in a run. But Cushing escaped further harm by retiring the next three batters – two by strikeout.

Brewer then invoked the 10-run rule with five runs on four hits and two Ellsworth errors in the bottom of the inning. J.T. Davis singled home one run, Patterson singled home two runs, and Grimes hit a two-out, two-run single to end the game.

“We’ve been playing well,” Kotredes said. “We played a good game against Bangor last week and just had one bad inning, but other than that we’ve been playing good baseball and we’re really confident we can go deep into the playoffs.”

WITCHES 11, EAGLES 1

(Wednesday night)

Ellsworth (6-6) Brewer (12-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Buckingham cf 3 0 0 0 Otis dh 3 2 2

Jellison 1b 2 0 0 0 Cushing p 0 0 0

Putnam p-3b 2 0 0 0 Patterson 1b 3 2 2

Berry lf 2 1 1 0 McAvoy 3b 3 1 0

Na. Jordan c 2 0 1 0 Kotredes 2b 4 0 2

C.Smith rf-p 2 0 1 0 Miller cf 3 1 1

Ma. Peasley ss 1 0 1 1 Grimes lf 4 2

Gashlin 3b 1 0 0 0 B. Davis rf 2 1 0

Rich rf 0 0 0 0 Mi. Peasley c 0 2 1

No. Jordan ph 1 0 0 0 J.T. Davis ss 3 1

M. Smith rf 0 0 0 0

Homich 2b 2 0 0 0

Totals 18 1 4 1 Totals 25 11 11 11

Ellsworth 000 01 ? 1

Brewer 021 35 ? 11

E?Putnam, Berry, Gashin, Rich, N. Jordan, M. Smith; McAvoy; LOB?Ellsworth 3, Brewer 7; 2B?McAvoy; SF?Mi. Peasley, Miller; SB?Miller, Mi. Peasley, B. Davis

Ellsworth IP H R ER BB SO

Putnam (L, 2-2) 3 5 3 1 0 3

C. Smith 1 2/3 6 8 6 4 2

Brewer IP H R ER BB SO

Cushing, (W, 2-0) 5 4 1 1 0 6

HBP?Ma. Peasley (by Cushing), B. Davis (by Putnam), Patterson (by C. Smith); T?1:27; ATT?100 (est.)