Bears Rattle Mustangs in Baseball Opener

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Bears rattle Mustangs in baseball opener

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

LITTLE CYPRESS — Using superb pitching and taking advantage of a slew of West Orange-Stark errors, the defending District 22-4A champion Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears got their season off in dominating fashion by downing the Mustangs 11-1 in five innings Monday night.

Bear pitchers Tim Barry, Shane Waddell and Danny Briseno teamed up to scatter just two hits while striking out nine to silence the Mustangs.

The Bears managed six hits off Mustang pitchers Bubba Gearhart and Cody Hodge. The duo walked five Bears and their defense struggled behind them as the Mustangs committed five errors.

Stefan Cloeren and Stefan Leger both went 2-for-3 to power the LC-M offensive attack. Tim Barry and Ben Jones also added singles for the Bears.

Taylor Bonin had a single for the Mustangs in the second inning and Hodge singled in the third frame.

The Bears scratched for a run in the bottom of the second.

Barry led off with a single to left, went to second on a nice Jon Gunn sacrifice bunt. He went to third on a past ball and scored after Chad Richard hit a sharp fly ball that was dropped in left-centerfield by the Mustangs.

LC-M went up 6-0 in the second by tallying five runs.

After the Mustangs turned a nice double play, Gearhart walked Dallas Brown, Wade Estes and Barry and then walked Gunn with the bases-loaded as Brown trotted in to make it 2-0.

Hodge replaced Gearhart on the mound and Cloeren came to the plate and ripped a two-run single to rightfield to make it 4-0. Richard then hit another deep fly ball to rightfield which was dropped by the Mustangs and two more Bears scooted in to make it 6-0.

The Mustangs grabbed their run in the top of the third.

With two outs, Mustang Seth Thomas got all the way to second base after he slapped a grounder to third which was misfired to first base by the Bears. Kendall Veitch reached first on a third-strike passed ball and then Hodge was able to score Thomas by lacing an RBI single to left.

LC-M finished off the game with five more runs in the bottom half of the fourth.

Waddell led off by getting hit by a Hodge pitch and Barry reached first on an error. Courtesy runner Briseno went to third on the error and came home on a wild pitch to make it 7-1.

After Gunn walked, Cloeren singled to load the bases up again. Barry and Gunn both evenbtually scored when another Richard deep fly was dropped in right again, making it 9-1.

Leger would score Cloeren with an RBI single to left and a single to center by Jones brought in Richard for the game’s final run.

Barry struck out five Mustangs in three innings of work. Waddell fanned two in 1 2/3 innings and Briseno finished it off with two consectutive strikeouts.

The Bears return to action Thursday through Saturday when they host their own tournament. The Mustangs return to play Feb. 26 when they visit Crosby, which is coached by former Mustang standout Marcus Thompson.