MORGANTOWN — If high school baseball games only lasted five innings, the University’s squad could walk away from Wednesday’s contest against Bridgeport with its heads held high.
The Hawks (10-11) gave the No. 1 ranked Class AAA Indians everything they had for the first five innings and were trailing 3-2. Then the Indians broke the game open in the sixth and seventh innings and left with an 11-4 victory.
Most of the credit for the first five innings goes to starting pitcher James Bryner who held a potent Bridgeport offense in check.
Bryner finished with five innings pitched, four runs, four strikeouts and three walks in the contest. His performance was a welcome sight for first-year coach Travis Renner.
“You look at his numbers and he has been phenomenal all year,” Renner said of the junior pitcher. “He’s had about two bad innings that have weighed into that. But all year, he’s battled for us. We made a couple of adjustments for him the last couple of weeks, and he seems to be taking it well and it looks good for him.”
The adjustments were for Bryner to do less on game days.
Bryner said he tries to rest a little more during the days he is on the mound and not throw as much before the game. The hope is he can go deeper into the game.
“I’m trying to do less in pregame,” Bryner said. “That way I am more energized and can go longer in the game and fill up the strike zone.”
Bridgeport scored one run in the first and two runs in the fifth before scoring three runs in the sixth and five in the seventh. Bryner walked the first batter in the sixth and was relieved by Max Cash and eventually Daniel Grabo. UHS committed three errors in the final two innings and struggled with its bunt defense.
“It was the routine plays that we just didn’t make,” Renner said. “And then the big thing was our approach at the plate with guys in scoring position. I mean, we still had 10 hits – we out hit them on the day. We just didn’t have the timely hits.”
University stranded 12 runners on the basepaths with six of those left in scoring position.
The Hawks tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first when Brance McCune, who slugged a one-out double, scored on a double off the bat of Max Cash.
Bridgeport added two more runs in the fifth for a 3-1 lead, but the Hawks responded with a run of their own as Brock Shuba scored when Colson Jenkins laid down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt.
Despite giving up three runs in the sixth, the Hawks answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 6-4. Lukas Neer hit a two-run pinch-hit single that scored McCune and Barrett Shuba. That was as close as UHS would get as Bridgeport closed the door with its five runs in the seventh.
— Story by Eric Herter
Box score
Bridgeport 11, University 4
BHS – M. Romano 3 1 1 2, Rohrig 5 0 1 2, Baun 4 2 1 0, Savrakis 5 1 2 3, Sonedricker 3 1 1 0, Goodwin 3 2 1 0, S. Romano 2 2 0 1, Dunn 3 1 0 0, Mcnally 1 0 1 0, Duvall 4 1 0 1. Totals: 33 11 8 9.
UHS – Quarrick 3 0 0 0, McCune 4 2 2 0, Cash 4 0 1 1, Br. Shuba 1 1 0 0, Neer 1 0 1 2, Grabo 3 0 1 0, Montague 3 0 1 0, Jenkins 3 0 1 1, Metheny 3 0 0 0, White 1 0 1 0, Ba. Shuba 4 1 2 0. Totals: 30 4 10 4.
2B – BHS: Stavrakis. UHS: McCune 2, Cash, Montague.
WP – Avolio 4.2ip 7h 3r 3er 2bb 3k
LP – Bryner 5ip 4h 4r 3er 3bb 4k.
