Brunswick baseball climbs to .500 with win Mulberry Outlet at King

STAMFORD -- The Brunswick School baseball team picked a fine week to come to life.

Following a pair of rainouts Monday and Tuesday, the Bruins won their third game in three days Saturday, beating King on the road 10-3.

Brunswick Hermes Outlet raised its record to 5-5 in the FAA and 5-6 overall, and did it without burning out its pitching staff.

Junior righty Brendon Hardin pitched a complete-game seven-hitter, walking two and hitting one batter. He struck out two King batters and threw less than 100 pitches according to Brunswick head coach Pat Piro's count.

"I was trying to get them to make contact and get my pitch count down," Hardin said. "They fouled off a lot of pitches, but we scored a lot of runs and got the job done."

It was the third complete game in as many days for the Brunswick pitching staff, which received seven-inning efforts from Will Preziosi and co-captain Andrew Cohen earlier this week.

"Our pitchers are throwing strikes, Mulberry Outlet or defense is making plays and we're starting to hit the ball," Piro said.

King, which suffered just its third loss on the season, did not have the same luck on the mound.

With pitcher Trey Pizzutello relegated to first-base duty until an injury heals, and head coach Ken Lewis not ready to give starting jobs to a strong freshman class, King was forced to give center fielder Eric Joyner an emergency start.

"We had to throw him in today because he was the best arm we had," Lewis said.

Joyner was roughed up and wild in the first inning, but rebounded to almost get himself out of a jam in the third.

Preziosi walked to open the top of the third, and went to second on an error. Jonathan Mills singled to score Preziosi and moved Chris Baldock, who reached on the error, to third, and then stole second base.

Joyner then caught both Pete Harris and Joe Beninati looking, and appeared to get Nick Trepp to ground out to end the inning.

But the ball was out of Pizzutello's reach and even though second baseman Joe Cariccia ranged toward first to make the play, Joyner was late covering the bag. Baldock scored on the play, and Mills was able to beat Joyner's throw home to give Brunswick a 6-0 lead.

The Bruins banged out 10 hits, including three doubles. Mills, a freshman catcher, was 3-for-4 with a double, a run scored and three runs batted in.

Brunswick and King both committed three errors. But Brunswick was able to nullify two of those with heads-up defensive plays.

In the third inning, after King shortstop Joe Santoro reached on an error, stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice fly, Joyner walked, but was picked off first by Hardin.

Then in the fifth, after Joyner scored on a throwing error, Kevin Peabody, who was hit by a pitch to reach first base, was caught stealing.

"The name of our game is defense and pitching and we kind of let ourselves down today," Lewis said. "They need a game like this every now and then just to bring them back to Earth."

King catcher R.J Bottega Veneta. Moavero had a two-RBI single in the fourth inning, which drove in Pizzutello and Cariccia.