McCARTY HOME RUN POWERS BRAVES PAST ROYALS

Posted May 23, 2017


McCARTY HOME RUN POWERS BRAVES PAST ROYALS

Braves first baseman Dane McCarty had a big three run home run in the third and collected four RBIs on the night lifting the Braves to a 9-5 win over the Armena Royals. The win moves the Braves into a four way tie for first in the early part of the Powerline Baseball League season with a 2-1 record while Royals fall to 0-2 to start their season. The win is the Braves second in a row at the Tofield Sports Grounds. 

 

 

The Royals would come out swinging against Braves starter Corey Epp (1-1, 5.73 ERA) collecting four singles in a row to lead off the game giving them three runs in the first. Epp would surrender all five of his runs in just two innings allowing three in the first and two in third inning after the Royals would once again collect four singles in a row before Epp would get out of the bases loaded jam with an inning ending double play. Through his six innings of work Epp would give up eight hits but after each big inning by the Royals, Epp would settle down and pitch a clean follow up inning leading to seven stranded Armena runners through five innings. 

Strong pitching from the bullpen in the sixth and seventh by Craig Koughan and Chad Nelson would keep the Royals off of the scoreboard. Koughan would make his first appearance since May 9 against the Sherwood Park Athletics, pitching 1 2/3 innings striking out one, allowing only two hits, both singles, and inducing a pair of double plays. Nelson would earn his first save of the season coming in to the game from short stop in the top of the seven to strikeout the only batter he would face, Royals catcher Sheldon Petryshyn, with the bases loaded and the winning run on deck. 

Despite scoring five runs through the first three innings, the Royals would struggle to come up with the big hit in the later part of the game against the Braves pitching staff and strong defence. Three times the Royals would have the bases loaded and a chance for runs in the game but would fail to capitalize on the opportunity. In the third it was Epp getting a double play off of the bat of Royals left fielder Kellen to end the inning with the bases loaded, in the sixth it was Koughan stranding the bases loaded with a double play off the bat of Landon Miller and Nelson’s strikeout of Brendan Kudrowich with loaded bases helped to inflate the left on base number to eleven on the game for Armena. 

Right fielder Josh McDonald would get the Braves offence started. In his first at bat since his walk off single against the Leduc Milleteers last week, McDonald would drive in the first Braves run of the night on his RBI double to score catcher Dylan Berrecloth to make it 3-1. Short stop Chad Nelson would make it 3-2 three batters later with a bases loaded single to score left fielder Pete Neufeld.

The Royals appeared to have a comfortable 5-2 lead through two innings until the Braves stormed back with a three run third inning. Pitcher Corey Epp would lead off the inning with a walk while his battery mate, catcher Dylan Berrecloth, would follow up with a single off of Royals Ian Sherbaniuk to put two runners on for first baseman Dane McCarty. The left handed swinging McCarty would connect on a Sherbaniuk offering driving the ball over the fence for the franchises first home run and to make it a 5-5 ball game. 

Earning the win on the mound was Epp and the veteran would also pick up the game winning RBI with his fourth inning RBI ground out to score short stop Chad Nelson. Insurance runs would be added in the fifth with McCarty scoring his second run of the game with Koughan and Epp adding runs eight and nine in the sixth from a pair of RBI fielder’s choices from McCarty (his fourth RBI of the night) and left fielder Pete Neufeld. 

Teams would combine for a total of nineteen players in the lineup throughout the game with each of the nineteen players safely reaching first base at least once via walk or base hit and sixteen players reaching base safely at least twice. Chad Nelson would lead hitters on both teams going 3 for 3 with a walk in his four plate appearances. Rob Berrecloth would extended his early season mini-hitting streak to three games with his single in the fourth inning. He has collected a hit in each of the Braves three games this season. 

The Braves will now travel to Camrose to take on the Roadrunners at Harry Andreassen Field. The Roadrunners were the PBL’s cinderella story in the first two weeks of the season as they vaulted to the top of the standings with a 2-0 record with wins against the Sherwood Park Athletics and the short handed Holden Blue Jays before losing their first game of the year last night to the Leduc Milleteers in a 10-3 rout. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm as the Braves look for their third win in a row.



Countdown

Countdown to
2020 Opening Day???

(May 16, 2020 @ 2:00pm)

Follow the Braves on Twitter @TofieldBraves for updates

Upcoming Games

There are no upcoming games to display.

Recent Results
Mon Jul 15/19 7:00pm:
Tofield Braves 3
Edmonton Expos 6
Fri Jul 12/19 7:00pm:
Tofield Braves 7
Edmonton Expos 6
Thu Jul 11/19 7:00pm:
Tofield Braves 15
Armena Royals 2