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CARROLLTON - For being the Carrollton Hawks third game of the young season, junior starting pitcher Ethan Brannan looked like he was in mid-season form.
Behind Brannan’s strong performance and vital five-run fifth inning, the Hawks defeated the West Central Cougars 6-1 in a non-conference game at Carrollton High School on Tuesday night.
Brannan allowed one (not earned) on two hits while fanning nine hitters and walking three in five, and two-thirds innings pitched. He moves to 2-0 on the season.
“I thought I did pretty well today,” Brannan said. “My arm felt great. We made plays out in the field and nothing I can’t ask more from my teammates. Coach (Krumwiede) has been preaching first-pitch strikes ever since we started. That’s what I tried to work on today. Different pitches hitting those different locations is what we really needed, and I’m glad I got it done for my team.”
Head coach Jeff Krumwiede agreed on the severity of Brannan’s outing and noted how effectively he gets ahead on hitters while displaying good command on his pitches.
“His thing is getting ahead of hitters, and he does a nice job with that,” Krumwiede said. “His thing the rest of the year is just going to be to continue to have command and be in situations where he’s tough to deal with. When he’s ahead in the count, he does a nice job of keeping the ball down. He’s going to get a lot of ground balls, and as long as we make the plays on those, he’s going to have another good year. He’s got what it takes to be a good high school pitcher, and he showed it again today.”
Offensively, Carrollton (3-0) scrapped together six hits with Jones’ double being the only extra base hit. However, they managed to put 17 runners on base and drew eight walks.
Senior center fielder and two-time all-stater, Nathan Walker went 2-for-2 with two singles and got on base all four times he came up to bat. Cleanup hitter and right fielder, Gabe Jones also reached base four times and finished 2-for-2 with a single and a double.
West Central’s E.J. Korte tossed a shutout giving up four hits and struck out four batters while walking two. The Cougars defense also had his back by not surrendering any errors.
That all changed in the bottom of the fifth inning. Korte was taken out, and the Hawks capitalized with patience and fortunate breaks.
With one out and nobody on, Grant Pohlman, Walker, and Jones walked on 12 straight balls to load the bases for Garrett Settles. Two consecutive balks scored Pohlman and Walker home, which ultimately decided the game. Two batters later with Clay Schnettgoecke up to bat, a wild pitch was thrown scoring Jones from third base, and then Brannan tore around the bases from first and crossed home plate after taking advantage of another errant throw. With two outs, Curtis Lake lofted a fly ball to right field that was dropped, which allowed Schnettgoecke to score the fifth run of the inning.
“Their kid was pitching a great game, and we were just struggling offensively,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “I thought maybe eventually when we got back to the top of the order we would have a chance to do something, but we needed breaks, and we got them. All of sudden West Central gave us an opportunity, and it opened the gates.”
In the following inning, Walker scored to make it 6-1 on an RBI groundout by Settles. He then got recorded the final four outs for the Hawks to earn the save.
“I like that we’re 3-0. We’ve not been great at batting so far, but it’ll start,” Walker said. We’re going to get used to seeing live pitching, and we’ll score some runs. I wasn’t getting a lot of strikes today; I hit the ball when I could. We scored some runs [in the fifth] inning, and that put us over the top.”
After graduating six seniors, who filled up the lineup for the past four years, the Hawks have a vastly different look about them. Jones and Walker are back for year No. 3 as starters along with other senior Curtis Lake. Brannan and Settles are juniors and have a year of quality varsity time under their belt along with Schnettgoecke and Hunter Flowers who returns after missing all of last season due to nursing a broken shoulder. Freshmen, Grant Pohlman and Gus Coonrod (the youngest brother to Carrollton greats, Joey and Sammy Coonrod) are starters. Pohlman is the starting catcher, and Coonrod is the third basemen.
“We got a lot of freshmen out there. We’re going to have to deal with a lot of inexperience, and we’re going to have some mental mistakes,” Krumwiede said. “Defensively, Gus and Grant have been fantastic for us. These aren’t just average, ordinary freshman either. We got to keep hoping our seniors and upperclassmen who have been there are good leaders and that these guys fit right in and roll with the flow. Our older are going to have to step up and be leaders. They’re going to have to show these young kids how it’s done and what Carrollton baseball is about.”
With the mixture of veteran talent and young, raw talent, the Hawks still have similar expectations and are off on the right foot thus far. Krumwiede emphasized his team has to play to their potential more often than the last couple of seasons to compete consistently because off days will be less affordable.
“Our big focus has been, what are we going to do different? How are we going to take another step?” Krumwiede said. “With the graduation losses, we’re going to have to play a lot better to see the kind of success that we’ve been seeing. We’re going to have to eliminate a lot of mental mistakes, and I hope the guys are buying into that. Physically it’s all about making contact and avoiding strikeouts and putting the ball in play. When these guys put more pressure on opposing defenses, we’ll do better.”
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