The Brooks Bombers dropped thursday nights contest 13-10 to the Moose Jaw Miller Express and split the two game series. Moose Jaw sent Drew Sorrentino to the mound to make his first start of the season while the Bombers sent out Tokyo’s Tomoki Jitsukawa to make his second start in 2024.
Jitsukawa retired the Millers in order to begin the game and let the bats pick up where they left off and thats what Jacob Gillis did as he hit his first homerun of the season to open the scoring. Will Bomersbach would score on a past ball to extend the lead after 1 inning.
Things went sideways for Jitsukawa in the top of the second however. After Elijah Bear and Declan OHare both reached base Joe Osbourn made the Bombers Pay with a three run homerun. The Millers would continue to chip away batting around in the inning eventually putting up a seven spot. That would be all from Jitsukawa as he only lasted two innings giving up six earned runs on seven hits.
The Bomber bats would rally in the bottom half. Maddoz Shaver would score off a fielders choice curtosey of a Payton Matthews ground ball. Matthwes would later steal Second and advance to third off the dropped third strike from Jacob Gillis who reached safely. Will Bomersbach was struck by a pitch and the bases were loaded with two outs. Zander Bretza was then hit causing another run to score and then Sorrentino walked Ned Ceklic which brounght another runner home to make it a two run ball game.
Killian McLaughlin would come in for Jitsukawa to begin the third and make his presence known putting up a zero in the top of the third. Brooks would piggyback off their last half inning at the plate when Maddox Shaver lead off with a linedrive homerun to make it a 7-6 game. Jacob Gillis would continue to be prouductive and reach base setting up Antony Gilbert who hit yet another two run blast, his third in the last two games to grab the lead back. Will Bomersbach would follow suit with a big fly of his own as those two hitters stayed hot and put the Bombers in front 9-7.
From there the Brooks Bullpen would continue to put up zeros due to the work of McLaughlin and Theo Giedd. McLaughlin faced 13 batters overt three innings and only gave up three hits and didnt surrender a run while Giedd went one scorless inning giving up just one hit in the process.
“It was awesome to see those guys go out there and dominate, Killian has a great mentality up there of just wanting to beat hitters, and for Theo this is exactly what I expect out of him he was hitting his spots and pumping the zone”, said pitching coach Jake Zettel.
The seventh inning is where things got interesting for both teams. Ben George would come in to start the seventh and hit a pair of batters before Thomas Soto would drive in Joe Osbourn. George would only last two thirds of an inning giving up the lone run on the single from Soto. Zander Bretza would show off his range as a two way option going from third base to the mound to take over from George. He would retire the first batter he faced to get out of the inning.
After Gillis and Gilbert were retired Bomersbach was back at the dish where he got hit by yet another pitch but this time it was costly as he went down immediately after being struck. He was on the ground for several moments before being helped to the clubhouse by teammates. Evan Leibl would replace him and the team had a shock to their system.
“Will is a guy you want to have around in your dugout, hes always been team first, I’ve been really impressed with him as a person”, said Zettel.
The Miller Express would rally facing two outs in the top of the eigth. Justin George with two runners on singled that would advance runners to 2nd and third but an error at third meant the ball got away and a pair of Millers scored before George was caught in no mans land to end the inning. Moose Jaw tied the game at 10 a piece.
The Bombers would go quiet in the bottom of the eighth and ninth despite Bretza putting up a huge zero in the top half, the game needed extra innings. Joe Osbourn would strike again this time with a two run homerun to stun the crowd. Moose Jaw would add one more to lead 13-10 headding into the bottom of the 10th. Brooks was unable to cook up another comeback as Takao Cookson pitched two and two thirds for the win and save on the night.
Brooks scored 20 runs in two games but came away empty handed on thursday night. Next up the Okotoks Dawgs pay a visit to Elks field. First pitch is at 7:05 and pregame the life of Riley Martin will be honoured.