Brashear Sweeps Baseball/Softball Double Header at Novinger Tuesday

The Tigers baseball team wins a 10-inning thriller while the Lady Tigers take care of business in 5 innings.

Tuesday night found Brashear on the road at Novinger for a Tri-County Conference double-header. In the softball game, Brashear jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never looked back. Hailee Kelsey got things going when she sped to first on a ground ball. Christina Scudder followed with a 2-run homer. Shanea Rusk, Kimberly Elsea, Andrea Reeves, and Ashley Clarkson drew walks before Carmen Woods hit a 2-RBI single. Christina Scudder took the mound for Brashear in the bottom of the first and set the Novinger batters down in order until the bottom of the 3rd when a walk, passed ball, and bloop single got Novinger on the board with a run. Brashear eventually won by a margin of 15-2 in 5 innings. Scudder recorded 7 strikeouts in picking up the win. Brashear improves to 4-3 on the season.

The baseball half of the double-header proved to be a wild one. Novinger got on the board to take a 1-0 lead in the first after Brashear starter Jacob Shipman suffered some control problems. Brashear tied the game in the top of the second and then took the lead in the 3rd when Tyler Killen hit a 2-out single followed by a Kale Watson home run over the center field fence. Matt Thomas added a 3-RBI homer in the 4th and Tyler Killen added a solo homer in the 5th. Matt Thomas came on in relief of Shipman in the 5th and looked like he would have an easy time protecting Brashear's 8-4 lead as he faced only 4 batters, striking out 3 of them. Things didn't go as well for Brashear in the 6th with Novinger plating 3 runs to pull within 8-7. In the seventh, Thomas struck out the first two batters, but the 2nd batter reached base on a dropped third strike. The next batter reached on an infield grounder when the throw to first missed the mark. Thomas got the next batter to pop up on the infield for the second out and the runner at 3rd was caught off base, but the throw to 3rd for what would have been an inning-ending double play skipped into the dugout sending the tying run home. Brashear finally pushed across a pair of runs in the 10th when Matt Thomas was hit by a pitch and Tyler Killen reached on an error sending Thomas home. Kale Watson drew a walk followed by a Kiley Watson single. This loaded the bases for Koty Hayden who was hit by the first pitch to drive in another run. Shipman stuck out 6 Novinger batters and Thomas stuck out 12 in his relief appearance. Brashear is now 2-1.

The Lady Tigers will host Canton Thursday at 5:00 for a Varsity/JV softball double header, and Brashear visits LaPlata Friday night for a baseball/softball double-header.