BRUNSWICK – Clutch hitting carried Brunswick High School to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Class A baseball playoffs.
Clutch hitting against everyone except Edward Little and pitcher Adam Redmun.
“He’s been so good that I hope he graduates early,” said Brunswick coach Peter Blake.
The junior southpaw painted another masterpiece to extend his scoreless string against Brunswick to 15 innings. Redmun tossed a four-hitter and struck out a season-high 11 to lead the No. 7 Red Eddies to a 5-0 victory Friday in the quarterfinals.
Of Brunswick’s four losses, three have come against Edward Little (11-7).
Justin Ciszewski had two of EL’s eight hits.
The bottom of the EL batting order provided the clutch hits during the four-run uprising in the fifth inning that broke the game open. No. 6 hitter Kyle Giguere ripped an RBI single, No. 8 hitter Matt Meserve knocked in a run on a fielder’s choice, and Kyle Smith, the No. 9 hitter, closed out the outburst with a two-run single to left with the bases loaded.
“Everybody in your lineup has to have good at-bats,” said Edward Little coach Scott Annear. “You need to have more than four guys. They all stepped up and did a good job.”
No one did a better job than Redmun, who utilized his curve ball to frustrate the Dragon batters. The steady drizzle that fell had no effect on Redmun’s ability to grip the ball and throw strikes.
Redmun got in trouble only twice. Josh Clark doubled with one out in the first, but the EL pitcher caught No. 3 hitter Nate Wohlrake looking at a called third strike before retiring cleanup hitter Steve May on a pop up to short.
He issued his lone two walks in the third inning, but left them stranded on second and third.
“I just kept them off balanced because that’s the best thing to do in high school baseball,” said Redmun.
Once he got into his rhythm with catcher Meserve, few Brunswick batters struck the ball solidly.
His defense supported him with errorless ball. Brunswick committed two errors, which led to three unearned runs.
The Eddies took a 1-0 lead in the first when leadoff hitter Josh Alexander walked, was sacrificed to second by Tyler Snowe and scored one out later when Tyler Dorris singled down the right-field line.
After squandering scoring chances in the third and fourth – stranding five runners in those two innings – EL finally solved Brunswick pitcher May in the fifth.
Dorris walked and alertly advanced to third on Derek Doucette’s single to short right field. After Giguere made it 2-0 on a base hit up the middle, EL loaded the bases when the shortstop muffed a throw on an attempt to force out Giguere. Meserve then hit a slow roller down the first-base line, but Brunswick failed to force the runner at the plate when the catcher failed to touch home. Smith then dropped his single to left for a 5-0 lead.
“I feel we’re starting to hit our stride again,” said Annear.
Redmun retired eight of the final nine batters to send EL to today’s semifinals.
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