Hoping to break out of a two-game losing streak, the Brahmas’ baseball team took on Tuesday’s game against West L.A. with a positive attitude and good team work.
The mental change proved to work as it lead them to victory with a final score of 6-3, improving their overall record to 5-10.
“Anytime you come off a losing streak and win again, it shows we are improving,” said shortstop Matt Sanchez.
The Brahmas’ walked out of the dug out on the bottom of the fifth inning congratulating Sanchez for his first inside-the-park home run of the season that secured two runs.
“You don’t see that too often but Matt [Sanchez] has very good foot speed,” Brahmas’ head coach John Bushart said.
West L.A. took advantage of a bases loaded situation with two outs on the top of the sixth inning scoring three runs on a triple off of pitcher Ryan Blakely who then ended the inning with a strike out.
“Outstanding pitching performance from Ryan Blakely, he held us to three hits and two of those were bunts,” said West L.A. head coach Bob Grant. “His performance is an example of coach Bushart’s coaching.”
Pierce closed out the game with two final runs on the bottom of the eight inning when Nick Murphy scored on an error.
The Brahmas outhit West L.A.11-3 and took the opportunity to score on their five errors.
“Our defense broke down and Pierce took advantage of our mistakes,” Grant said.
According to head coach John Bushart the team has been doing some bonding activities as well as waking up at 6 a.m. for practices.
“We are trying to become more of a team, that is one of our weaknesses,” he said.
Pitcher David Carver mentioned a few things the team was doing during prior practices and games that was making them incapable of playing as a team.
“Stretching individually…in the past we would cheer in the beginning and then everyone would start talking about unrelated stuff,” he said.
Brahmas’ baseball has had a tough season, dealing with inconsistency, lack of team work, and inexperience, but with their conference record at 1-1, the players see this as a second chance to redeem themselves.
“Definitely, we are rebuilding ourselves to keep on winning,” said Sanchez.
Aside from the challenges the Brahmas’ have faced this season they continued to battle and make changes that has allowed them to start the conference with a balanced record of 1-1, a fair loss and a well deserved win.
Pierce baseball will go away on Thursday, March 2 to face Mission College at 2 p.m.
http://info.piercecollege.edu/departments/athletics/baseball.html