By Sam Doherty
Staff Writer
A handful of Brookhaven Bears regroup to decide on a new play.
The North Lake College Blazers started the scoring off on March 28 at North Lake by getting on base with a walk, then scoring on a triple that was hit to right center off of Bears pitcher Austin Kufrovich.
Kufrovich’s performance on the mound was not enough as the Brookhaven College men’s baseball team lost to the Blazers, 1-2.
In the second inning, Kufrovich mixed up his pitches. He said he was throwing curveballs, two-seam fastballs, change-ups and his favorite pitch, forkballs. Kufrovich had guys swinging and missing his forkballs as he struck out a batter nearly every inning, throwing almost 100 pitches over six innings.
After the Blazers got on the board first in the second inning, the Bears came right back with a run of their own, tying up the game at 1-1 in the third inning. Catcher Cord Perea drove in Wesley Moore with a single after Moore got on base with an error.
From there on out, it became a pitchers’ duel between two southpaws, Kufrovich and North Lake’s relief pitcher Zack Kubala.
Kubala pitched four innings, striking out five batters, while only giving up one hit. The Bears did not get many hits, but they were able to get on base three different times by drawing walks. None of the Brookhaven batters came through with a big hit like Perea had earlier in the game.
After getting the first two batters out with a groundball to second baseman Byron Brooks and another strike out using his forkball, Kufrovich ran into his first bit of trouble since the second inning. Head coach Brandon Rains quickly yanked Kufrovich out of the game after he gave up a double down the power alley in right center field, followed by walking the next batter.
Rains brought Michael Biasello into a tough situation, since it was the last inning of the game and the first game of a doubleheader. The right-hander took the mound and pitched, but luck was not on Brookhaven’s side.
Biasello pitched to the first batter he faced, and after five pitches, the count was full. On the next pitch, the batter hit the ball up in the air, causing it to almost float, as it had a back spin on it. Brookhaven’s infielders started backing up as the ball looked like it was going to reach the grass in shallow left when first hit, but instead finally landed between shortstop Junior Rios and the pitcher’s mound. The ball had so much spin that by the time the Bears got their mitts on it, the runner was safe at first and the bases were loaded.
With two outs, the game tied and the bases loaded for North Lake in the final inning, Biasello threw his next two pitches for strikes.
The umpire made a controversial call on his third pitch, declaring Biasello hit the batter’s arm with the pitch (HBP), which drove in the winning run on third base.
The Bears roared in defiance as the Blazers “walked off” with an HPB. Rains quickly gathered his team and took them down the left field line to keep them focused.
The Brookhaven Bears went on to win the second game of the doubleheader, 7-0. According to njcaa.org, the Bears are now 15-7 with a 10-5 record in conference play, as of press date.
