FORT BRAGG — Close games have not been kind to the Middletown Mustangs in 2007 and a 5-4 North Central League I North loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves on Tuesday in Fort Bragg only served to pound that point home.
Fort Bragg improved to 6-1 in the North varsity baseball standings by scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh to wipe out a 4-3 Middletown lead.
Middletown is 0-5 in one-run games and 1-6 in games decided by two or fewer runs this season.
“This game epitomizes our tough luck in close games,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said of Fort Bragg”s final at-bat, which saw a Timberwolf player swing at a ball in the dirt and punch it into shallow right field to knock in the winning run.
Middletown took a 4-3 lead into the bottom seventh. Losing pitcher Kelley McKinley gave up a leadoff single before getting a flyball out. He hit a batter and allowed another single to load the bases, then hit another batter to force in the game-tying run. That set the stage for the game-winning at-bat.
“Kelley throws a hard 0-2 curve that bounces in the dirt and the guy swings at it and punches it in between our second baseman and right fielder,” Tucker said. “It was like a drop kick.”
Middletown (2-5 North, 9-13 overall) took a 4-0 lead in the top of the second on an RBI single by McKinley, a two-run single by Eric Tomko and a RBI single by Travis Taylor. Fort Bragg answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning and closed to 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth.
McKinley went the distance for Middletown, striking out 10 and walking four.
