FORESTVILLE — Kyle Brown had a 7-0 lead before throwing his first pitch on Friday against the El Molino Lions.
In a non-league varsity baseball game that offered little in the way of suspense — thanks entirely to Middletown”s red-hot bats — the Mustangs built an 11-0 lead after two innings and cruised past El Molino 14-3 at Forestville. The game was called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.
The Mustangs (3-2) pushed seven runs across the plate before Brown took his first warm-up pitch in the bottom of the inning. The outburst began with a bases-loaded walk to Jake Tucker. One out later Reid Carpenter singled home two runs to make it 3-0. With two outs in the inning, the Mustangs tacked on four mores thanks to consecutive RBI singles by Blaine Amos, Graham Brown, Logan Smith (who led off the inning with a double), and Luke Humphrey (4-for-4).
After Brown pitched a scoreless bottom of the first, the Mustangs came right back with four runs in the second. Two-run singles by Amos and Humphrey made it 11-0.
“With this team being a young team, I”ve told them to be aggressive early in the count and they”ve done a good job of that,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said. “Get that fastball early in the count.”
Middletown tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth after the Lions had scored single runs in the third and fourth innings.
The Mustangs finished with 13 hits. Smith, Carpenter and Amos had two apiece.
Brown, 2-1, scattered five hits, struck out six and walked one. He allowed one earned run.
“Kyle had a great outing,” Tucker said of his staff ace. “He does two things very well. He keeps the ball down and he throws strikes.”
Brown worked out of a jam in the top of the third when Middletown committed its only two errors of the game. Although he allowed a run in the inning, he sandwiched strikeouts around a shallow flyout to center to avoid further damage.
Middletown also received solid play in the field from shortstop Brad Bologna, who made two nice plays in the fifth to help keep the Lions from scoring and extending the game, according to Tucker.
The Mustangs have won three straight since opening the season with losses to Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. They are scheduled to play Lick Wilmerding on Tuesday at Skyline College, however the game may be moved up to Monday because of the chance of rain on Tuesday, according to Tucker.
