Brickley goes the distance
Senior right-hander overcomes shaky first inning as 'Stangs beat Smoky Hill 6-2; team wins 5th in a row; Marsh 2Bs and homers.
Mullen baseball remains in the Chase … as in Chase Brickley, who turned in another strong outing on Tuesday afternoon.
As the new Season D stretches into June, Brickley, a senior right-hander, moved to 3-0 in leading the Mustangs to a 6-2 home victory over Smoky Hill at Bill Swift Field in the Centennial League. It was Mullen’s fifth consecutive victory and pushed its record to 8-3 overall and in league, where it remain very much in the chase. Smoky Hill is 2-11, 1-11.
“We battled through it,” Mustangs head coach Nick Arcuri said.
They were able to do so because Brickley settled in after the first inning to go the distance. He was touched for two runs in hist first trip to the mound before shutting down the Buffaloes the rest of the way.
“Chase is an unsung hero,” Arcuri said. “He’s the best high-school player in the state that nobody’s ever heard of.”
For his part, Brickey, who knows he struggles initially, said “the first inning, I kind of get a feel for my pitches for the day. It’s usually the toughest inning. I see what’s working, what’s not ... but I threw the ball pretty well today.”
In all, Brickley walked two, struck out five and allowed just four hits. The Buffaloes’ base runners were few and far between after the first and it was a good thing – Mullen didn’t get its bats going until late.
Tied at 2, the Mustangs’ Owen Marsh ripped a solo home to open the bottom of the sixth for what proved to be the winning run.
“Well,” the first baseman said, “the first pitch was a curveball and the second pitch was a curveball, and I took both of those. Then I knew a fastball was coming and I jumped on it. I knew it was gone.”
Two of the Buffaloes’ five errors factored in -- Luca Maffoni and Ben Krza walked and Colin MacKenzie and Andrew Brady added singles to account for three more runs in the inning.
Earlier, Mullen plated a run in the first on a walk, a couple of groundouts and an error. And in the fourth, Marsh doubled and scored after a sacrifice bunt and a double by Sage Hurley.
“We can’t play down to our competition,” Marsh said. “We’re confident we can hit and win ball games.”
Mullen, which also had two double plays, will have its busy week continue – its second of four games for the period will be Wednesday, June 2, at Dakota Ridge, 4:15 p.m., in Littleton in nonleague.
MULLEN 6, SMOKY HILL 2
Smoky Hill 200 000 0 -- 2 4 5
Mullen 100 104 x -- 6 6 2
Mullen batting – Colin MacKenzie lf 2-0-1-2, Trevor Moore ss 3-1-0-0, Andrew Brady 3B 4-0-1-1, Henry Stewart cf 4-0-0-0, Owen Marsh 1B 3-2-2-1, Andrew Terrones-Garcia dh 2-0-0-0, Sage Hurley 2b 3-1-1-1, Luca Maffoni rf 2-1-10-0, Ben Krza c 2-1-0-0, Chase Brickley p 0-0-0-0. Totals 25-6-6-5.
E – Moore. SAC – Garcia. SB – Hurley, Moore. DP – Mullen 2. LOB – Mullen 7.
2B – Marsh, Hurley. HR – Marsh, solo in 6th. BB – MacKenzie 2, Moore, Maffoni. HBP – Krza.
Pitching – Brickley (W) 7 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K. T – 1:39.
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