Baseball: Witches cast off Red Eddies with late barrage

AUBURN — It was as if Edward Little and Brewer drifted into the doldrums and remained locked in a 1-1 tie — until the sixth inning.

That’s when the Witches (1-1) unloaded on the Red Eddies (0-2) with five hits, including a two-run homer and three-run double that led to 13-1 victory at Austin Field on Friday.

Brewer winning pitcher Jed Gilpatrick held the high ground, throwing a two-hitter, while also helped his cause at the plate, too. Cassidy Campbell was saddled with the loss, going 6 2/3 innings before being relieved by TJ Kramarz.

“I just threw my fastball … and the ump was giving me some calls and the defense behind me was making plays, so it worked out,” Gilpatrick said.

Brewer coach Dana Corey said Gilpatrick stayed steady on the mound.

“(Gilpatrick) didn’t try to overthrow and he didn’t get excited,” Corey said. “He usually holds his composure very well. He mixed his pitches up very well.”

Brewer’s Grady Vanidestine started the game-changing sixth with a walk and later came home when third baseman Rowan Valley ripped a home run deep to center field to make it a 3-1 game.

“After that, fireworks just went off in the dugout and kind blew up,” Valley said. “It was 13-1 and it was kind of awesome.”

Valley’s homer triggered the six-run uprising, and with the bases loaded, Gilpatrick hammered out a three-run double. Logan Levensalor also scored, from third base on a wild pitch, giving Brewer a 7-1 cushion.

“We’ve been hitting the ball pretty well,” Corey said. “A couple of things happened and we started getting the ball in play, and when you start getting runners on base, kids start getting confidence at the plate and that kind of snowballs — and that is what happened to us today.

“We know things can happen and (the Red Eddies) are a good ball club and they are going to win a lot of games.”

The seventh inning ended up another free-for-all for the Witches, who scored six more runs using four hits, a walk and two Edward Little errors to take a commanding 13-1 lead.

Throughout the entire game, Gilpatrick maintained his composure on the mound and gave up only two hits.

Brewer got on the scoreboard first in the second inning. Outfielder Noah Tibbets doubled and came home on Andrew Hodges’ double.

The Red Eddies tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning when Aiden Gonzalez got on with an error and came home on Brady Vincent’s RBI double.

“That’s baseball,” Edward Little coach Dave Jordan coach said. “Momentum is a huge thing. They started getting the bat on the ball and finding some places. I felt like we had a really good game going on and that can happen.

“The wheels kind of fell off the bus. We did make some mistakes as we started getting into it a little bit more, but initially they were really making some really good contact.”