Coburn Palmer
Costly errors Saturday afternoon led to the Brahmas sixth loss in seven games.
The Pierce College baseball team was defeated by Mission College, 9-3 committing a total of seven errors in the process.
Defense and pitching are the two aspects of baseball that are commonly preached by any manager, coach, or scout. Basically anyone with a clue knows that’s what this great game comes down to.
After a devastating second inning in which the Eagles batted in five runs, the host Brahma squad was unable to recover.
“We made 7 errors, you can’t win ball games that way,” said Head Coach John Bushart.
The Brahmas gave up eight unearned runs in a disappointing showing.
“We’re on a serious slide,” said coach Bushart. “Its something new every day.”
The Brahmas poor showing Saturday increased coach Bushart’s frustration as he tried to pull his team out of their current funk.
“We just don’t do all three parts of the game: pitching, defense, catch, we don’t do them together,” said Bushart.
The Brahmas started the season well winning four games in a row, but have now fallen into a slump.
Coach Bushart will have to pull his team together in order to finish the rest of the season strong.
The upside of Saturday’s game was definitely starting pitcher Ryan Santhon performing well, according to coach Bushart.
“The starting pitching is the one thing that’s been consistent,” Bushart said.
Santhon struggled to remain optimistic as he tried to look forward to the rest of the season.
“Its one game and we have 17 more, you just have to go through it and move on,” Santhon said.
The Brahmas weren’t able to pull it together after struggling through a depressing second inning in which they up gave five runs.
Pierce then failed to capitalize on their many scoring opportunities as they stranded runners in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings.
“It just didn’t seem like we were all here to play,” said Santhon.
Meanwhile, Mission College had a fantastic day, especially starting pitcher Sean Becker who dominated the game according to Mission Head Coach Joe Cascione.
“It all started on the mound, our starting pitcher did a great job,” Cascione said. “He really was in good command today and put the ball where he wanted it and got a lot of easy outs.”
The Brahmas will look to pull it together as they face a tough challenge their next game. They travel to the College of the Canyons on Tuesday for the 2:30 p.m. start.