Boyd’s baseball team drops pair vs. Vikings

The Boyd Broncos’ 2008 baseball season got off to an inauspicious start this week, as they suffered a two-game sweep against Unionville’s Community High School.

After falling short on Monday 10-0, in a game which saw the Broncos go 2-for-18 at the plate as a team, Boyd’s bats showed some signs of life in Tuesday’s contest, but they still came up short, losing 16-6 in five innings at Edley Newman Field.

Casey Myers started on the hill for Boyd, lasting three innings and allowing a dozen runs (seven earned), including six in the game’s second inning. The Vikings got to him for eight hits, drew two walks and four batters were hit by pitches. Myers struck out four before giving way to Mitchell Young, who allowed four runs on five hits while walking one and fanning another.

Down 2-0 after the first inning, Boyd fell even further behind in the second, as the Vikings loaded the bases off a hit batsman, a bunt single and another hit batter before Myers plunked opposing pitcher Michael Smith to force in a run. The Broncos turned a double play on the next batter, and CHS cleanup hitter Lance Paschal struck out swinging, but the pitch was dropped by Boyd’s Dylan Fernandez, allowing Paschal to reach to keep the inning alive.

The miscue proved deadly for the Broncos, as Grant Patterson followed with a two-run single to left, and Kelby Demonbreum hit an RBI double before scoring on a Boyd error on the next batter.

Boyd connected for its first run of the season when Jon Bryant reached on an error to start the second inning, stole second, took third on another error and came home on a Mitchell Young groundout.

The Broncos gave up two more runs in the third on hits by Smith and Paschal, but Boyd countered with a four-run inning of its own. David Watson hit a one-out single to get things going, Myers followed by drawing a walk, and both runners scored when Tyler Hillis laced a triple to deep center field. Hillis came home on a seeing-eye single from Jon Bryant, who stole second and scored when Austin Young’s grounder to short was thrown away, cutting the Viking lead in half at 10-5.

The fourth inning saw CHS score five more runs and chase Myers from the mound after a walk and his fourth hit batsman of the game. Mitchell Young came on in relief, and gave up a walk of his own before Zach Haynes hit an RBI single. Smith belted a two-run single with one out in the inning, and Vikings Dustin White and Paschal had run-scoring hits of their own, pulling their team ahead 15-5.

Hoping to avoid the 10-run mercy rule, Boyd trimmed the gap back to single digits when Fernandez walked and later scored on a bases-loaded free pass to Bryant. Community got the run back when Haynes reached on an error, bringing home Justin Gaines, and Paschal shut down the Broncos in order in the bottom of the fifth to end the game.

Watson, Hillis and Bryant had the only base hits for the Broncos, who finished 3-for-20 at the plate as a team but benefited from six walks and several Viking errors. Community’s offense was led by Smith, who finished 3-for-4, driving in four runs.

Boyd, which is scheduled to hold a fundraising pancake breakfast at Applebee’s Saturday morning, returns to action today, with a home doubleheader against Whitwell. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30.