The Brahmas nearly shutout the Mission College Eagles, preventing them from scoring runs for the first seven innings. Brahmas won with a final score of 12-2.
During the first three innings of the game, both teams remained scoreless. It wasn’t until the bottom of the 4th inning that the Brahmas took a 2 run lead.
Left fielder Gabe Curtier hit a triple that brought in both Mike Scolar and JJ Gonzalez.
Curtier said he thought that it was his job to have a better at bat than his first turn, and it was important to get a lead against the Eagles.
“I knew, facing Mission, whoever was going to score first was most likely going to end up winning the game,” Curtier said.
Following Curtier’s triple was a solo homerun from shortstop Will Picketts in the bottom of the fifth inning expanding the lead to 3-0.
Will Picketts said this was his first homerun of the season and it helped the team get rid of some pressure.
“It’s exciting whenever you get the chance to hit a homerun. I don’t get to hit very many so I was very excited running around the bases, especially because it’s against Mission,” Will Picketts said. “They’re a good team. They’re our rival so it’s always good to do well against them.”
Brahmas kept the Eagles scoreless for almost eight complete innings with the help of their left-handed pitcher Alexis Miranda who was pulled out of the game at the top of the eighth inning when Mission scored their first run of the game.
Head coach Bill Picketts said he expects to see more wins from Miranda later in the season.
“He is a very, very intense kid and this is actually his first win of the year and he’s pitched really, really well,” Picketts said.
Miranda said he’s pitched a lot of games this year, but hadn’t been able to get a win. He said he was getting tired after the sixth inning, but the connection to his his catcher, Bryce Vitt, and his talent made it easier to perform well.
“I was able to get ahead most of their batters. So it felt a lot easier to pitch to them and get outs, which you gotta do against a good team like them,” Miranda said. “It feels good, my first win here at Pierce.”
Picketts said the team has improved at playing together and that’s helped them get more wins. They’ve also practiced on their batting techniques and are starting to see results like an increase in RBIs.
“I think they’re starting to understand what it takes to win ball games, and we’ve done a better job with it,” Picketts said. “Fortunately, today was our biggest win in the season, so it was kind of comforting to even have that yet this year.”
The Brahmas next game is at West LA College on Saturday, March 3, at 12 p.m.
