From Staff Reports
BRUCE – Ackerman's baseball season ended Saturday in Bruce as the Trojans earned a 9-5 win to sweep past the Indians in a first-round, best-of-three, Class 2A playoff series.
Jay King earned the pitching win for Bruce as the Trojans improved to 14-7 overall for the season.
Austin Bowman took the loss for Ackerman as the Indians finished the year with a record of 9-13.
With the win, Bruce advances to face Class 2A, Region 1 winner Mantachie in the second round of the playoffs.
One night after defeating Ackerman 15-0 on Friday, Bruce ran into trouble early on Saturday.
Ackerman's Dakota Brasher led off the game with a home run against King to give the Indians an early 1-0 lead.
One inning later, Taylor Stephenson connected for a homer to push Ackerman ahead 2-0.
That's when things begin to unravel for the Indians.
"We were up 2-0 and just kind of made some mistakes," said Ackerman head coach Brad Mitchell. "We didn't hit a cut-off man, we booted a routine grounder, we threw a ball away at first, just a bunch of stuff like that. When you get to this time of year, you can't make those kinds of mistakes."
Bruce plated four runs in the bottom of the second to claim a lead that was never relinquished.
"We've just got to learn how to finish ballgames," said Mitchell.
As for Bruce, the Trojans will travel to Mantachie for the opening game of the second round on Friday. Mantachie will travel to Bruce for the series' second game on Saturday.
If needed, the third game of the series would be played in Mantachie on Monday.