By Tom Waddill
Sports Editor
HUNTSVILLE —
On a night when Brenham’s Chase Wellbrock nearly threw a no-hitter, Huntsville head coach Jeff Brumbelow shook his head more about the Cubs’ impressive hit parade.
Brenham came to Kate Barr Ross Park on Wednesday and quickly took control on the District 18-4A baseball game against the Hornets. The top-ranked Cubs banged out 16 hits in the first three innings and scored 13 runs on their way to a commanding 18-1 win over Huntsville.
The Cubs improved to 2-0 in district play and 14-3 overall, while the Hornets dropped to 1-1 and 4-9 on the season.
“They hit the ball well,” Brumbelow said of the Cubs. “It didn’t matter if the pitch was off-speed and outside or a fastball inside, they hit the ball hard and they hit it into gaps.”
Cleanup man Chance Bolcerek got the Cubs going with two-run double off the right-field fence in the first inning. Right fielder Ty Schlottmann later crashed a three-run homer off Hornets starter Hunter Burson.
Brenham scored six runs in the first inning, then added three more in the second on singles by Eric Preuss and Schlottmann.
The Cubs starting quarterback in the fall, Schlottmann went 3-for-4 with six RBIs. Bolcerek had three doubles in his three plate appearances and Eric Weiss added a single, double and triple for the Cubs.
Wellbrock (5-0) took a perfect game into the fifth and final inning, but that ended when Cody Murray’s squibber bounced off the glove of first baseman Dillion Knebel, who tried unsuccessfully to dive and get Murray at first.
Grant Sprott chopped Huntsville’s first hit over the head of third baseman Scott Meier. Murray moved to third on Cody Jackson’s groundout and scored on a sharply hit comebacker to the mound off the bat of Casey Gattis.
Brumbelow said the Hornets waited too long to start swinging the bats against Wellbrock.
“When we finally got aggressive, we got runners on base in the fifth inning,” the coach said. “We’ve got to learn to be more aggressive The best thing I can say is we’ll go back to work tomorrow.”
The Hornets play at Waller on Friday at 7 p.m.
Montgomery blanks Lady Hornets in softball 3-0
The same problem seems to be plaguing Huntsville’s varsity softball squad: lack of offensive punch.
On Wednesday afternoon at Kate Barr Ross Park, the Lady Hornets managed only three hits in a 3-0 District 18-4A loss to Montgomery.
Alexis Ortiz, Michelle McGill and Jessica Beardsley all had hits for HHS, but they were all singles and none of them came in the same inning, according to coach Karol K. Smith.
“We’re just going to keep hitting away,” Smith said. “They’ll have to start falling in there sometime.”
Montgomery took a 1-0 lead in the third inning off Lady Hornets starter Hayley Martin. The Lady Bears scored two insurance runs in the top of the seventh when a fly ball dropped in the Huntsville outfield.
“That was a big error, that dropped fly ball,” Smith said. “They scored two runs on that. It should have been a 1-0 ballgame, but those things happen.”
Martin pitched well, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out five.
Huntsville (2-2 in 18-4A play, 8-9 overall) hits the road today for a 7 p.m. game at Magnolia.
“We have competed very well against Brenham and Montgomery,” Smith said. “They’re supposed to be the best teams in the district, so I feel like we can play with anybody.”
