By NATE BEIER | For the County Line
A late-game comeback by Royall sealed the fate for the Brookwood baseball team in a Division 4 regional quarterfinal on Thursday, May 23.
The Falcons fell 5–2 to their league rivals, ending their 2019 campaign.
Kaden Brandau kept the Falcons in the hunt for a win by putting together a strong pitching performance. The sophomore struck out 10 in five innings before needing to be relieved due to the pitch-count restrictions. Then Aaron Dwyer made it through a third of an inning, and Mitch Klinkner finished the final 1 1/3 inning.
After the second inning, Brookwood led 2–0. Weston Muehlenkamp walked to lead the inning, and Ricky Myers singled. A ground out to the pitcher by Evan Wang and a single by Payton Havlik drove in Muehlenkamp and Myers.
Royall turned on the offense in the sixth inning, after Brandau had left the game. A leadoff hit by Dalton Pasch put a runner on first. Two walks later, and the bases were loaded for Max Benish, who singled and put the visiting team on the board. Keith Schnurr walked, Arian Nordstrom singled, Ty Dragan walked, and Brendan Ziems, Jameson Bender, and Pasch singled to help drive in five runs. To finish the winning effort, Royall added a sixth run in the seventh inning.
Nordstrom finished 3–4, and Benish and Pasch each had two hits. The Panthers collected 12 walks along the way, with each batter receiving at least one free trip to first base.
Brookwood tallied nine hits over seven innings. Myers was 3–3 with a double in the loss. Also, Klinkner had two hits, one a double. Brandau, Dwyer, Wang, and Havlik each had a single.
“We chose a bad time to have our worst overall offensive performance of the year,” said Brookwood head coach Paul Olbert. “To Royall’s credit, their pitcher challenged us, and we did not come up with anything of note of the offensive side.”
“Finishing 9–5 in the conference when 75 percent of the team is made up of underclassmen, including three out of four freshmen starting in the infield, was an outstanding accomplishment for our team. Hopefully we can improve upon our performance and compete for a SBC title in 2020.”