The Brahmas suffered a crushing 13-2 defeat at the hands of Mission College on Saturday, March 16, at Joe Kelly Field. The loss pushed the Brahmas losing streak to three.
Mission College with one run in the top of the first inning against starting pitcher Johnathan Kennedy. The run was unearned as the leadoff hitter reached base on an error.
According to Coach Virgil Hill, a large part of winning is about overcoming the pressure when they are down.
“It’s a mental game more than a physical game, and right now the game is probably speeding up on the kids a little bit,” Hill said. “They just have to slow the game down, keep working hard and trust in the process.”
At the bottom of the first inning, the Brahmas put two runners on base but didn’t bring anyone home.
Kennedy was strong through the first five innings. Hill said he was impressed with Kennedy’s performance up to that point.
“He did really well the first five. He had a really good start and a good performance and, you know, he just has to keep going, keep working,” Hill said.
In the sixth inning, Mission’s offense woke up and they put the game out of reach.
Tobias replaced Kennedy in the sixth inning but that didn’t change the momentum of the game. By the end of the sixth inning, Mission was ahead 9-0.
Kennedy blamed himself for the leadoff walk started Mission’s rally.
“Honestly I think a leadoff walk, you know, that’s never good,” Kennedy said. “I think it’s like 90 percent of the time you put the leadoff guy on due to walk, the run scores. So that definitely was my fault.”
Kennedy discussed what he can work on going forward so rough innings like that don’t happen again.
“I think I just have to have trust in all three of my pitches and really go with the game plan, not shake our coach off, and really just focus on executing each pitch,” Kennedy said.
In the top of the eighth inning, Mission hit a three-run home run, giving them a 13-0 lead.
The Brahmas finally got a break in the bottom of the eighth inning when Zach Kaminkow singled to center field, driving in Diego Harris for their first run of the game.
Kaminkow said he saw an opportunity once the runner was on base.
“It was two strikes and I saw a lot of pitches with a runner on second, I believe after Diego hit the double that led us off,” Kaminkow said. “I was just trying to move them over, put them on play somehow and I was able to drive one in the gap and get them home.”
Ryan Shin drove Kaminkow in with an RBI-groundout, for their second and final run.
Leon Jackson took over the mound for the Brahmas in the top of the ninth inning and pitched a scoreless inning.
Hill explained that the team just wasn’t in their zone to start the game but started to play better later in the game.
“Sometimes when the game gets out of hand, you play a little bit looser,” Hill said. “Maybe they add a little bit too much pressure on themselves early. So, we just gotta figure out a way to get that nice loose feeling to the box.”
With the loss, the Brahmas record dropped to 5-12 including 1-5 in conference. Their next game will come on the road against Mission on Tuesday, March 19 at 2:30 p.m.