Allowing 12 hits and four runs certainly wasn’t in the master plan for Bannon Brazell.
But that’s what happened and things still worked out well for the Madison Warhawks’ starting right-handed pitcher in their 11-4 home victory over the Oakton Cougars on May 4 in Concorde District high-school baseball action.
Brazell reached the high-school pitch limit (of 110) in the contest, when he threw 112 pitches and worked 62/3 innings. By pitching to contact, the senior struck out nine and did not walk a batter. The win was the third straight for Madison, which improved to 11-6 overall and remained tied for second in the district at 5-3 with South Lakes.
“Tonight, I didn’t care if they hit the ball, because I knew our infielders and outfielders would make the plays,” Brazell said. “I just didn’t want to walk anyone. That was the plan.”
Brazell has thrown more than 100 pitches in three games this season, as he has been the workhorse of the staff. He wanted badly to complete the game against Oakton. Eli Novario fanned the one batter he faced on three pitches to end the game.
With the bat, Madison had nine hits, including the third homer of the season by Brazell. He had two hits and two RBI. Connor Moore had a two-run double; Bo Kuhblank had a two-run single that hit third base; Bryce Eldrige, Patrick Colyar and Mac Lewis had RBI singles; and Michael Gerber and Jaden Kritsky had singles.
“We played poorly early on, but we are playing much more as a team now and much better” Brazell said.
Madison took advantage of five Oakton errors, eight walks and wild pitches and passed balls.
“We are starting to catch fire now and we are figuring it out,” Madison coach Mark Gjormand said. “We played a tough schedule early just for this reason, to improve. Bannon didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he still battled.”
In its last three games, Madison scored 14, 17 and 11 runs.
Oakton fell to 12-6 and 4-4 in the district.
Nick Toole (double, one RBI) and Reid Steinberg (double, three RBI) each had three hits in the loss for Oakton. Ethan Jones and Robbie Lavey had two hits each, with Zach Danielczyk and Thomas Huitema having a hit apiece.
Oakton defeated Westfield, 10-3, in its previous game. Tanner Vislay started and worked four innings to get the win, striking out six. Jones had three hits, including a triple, Steinberg had two hits and an RBI, Toole had a hit and one RBI, and Ryan Sleight doubled.