BRADENTON — Their names were scribbled on the large lineup board attached to a wall behind the bleachers.
They took cuts standing on the on-deck circles plastered with the MLB logo.
They played under lights fit for big leaguers.
In was in this sort of atmosphere where Marc Monroe decided to hit the first home run of his high-school career.
Good timing.
Monroe’s blast, coupled with his four solid innings of work on the mound, led Braden River past Palmetto 5-2 on Thursday night.
Sweetening the win was it came in front approximately 200 fans at McKechnie Field, spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates since 1969.
“It’s fun,” Monroe said. “That was my first home run in high school, so it was nice.”
Monroe lined a pitch from Palmetto starter Jacob Wilson over the left-field wall in the third inning. Aside for being a personal milestone for Monroe, the shot snapped a 2-2 tie and put Braden River (18-2, 11-0 Class 4A-District 10) ahead to stay.
“We needed it,” said Braden River coach Ryan Hilton. “(Palmetto) came back and tied the score, and he was able to get a pitch and put a charge into it, and that jump-started us. And I think if there was any ‘Uh-oh’ angst in the game, that relieved a lot of it.”
That display of powerball was atypical of Braden River’s attack Thursday. The Pirates totaled just four hits, and got their first run when leadoff batter Nathan Pittman bunted for a hit, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on Blayne Lee’s sacrifice fly.
The Tigers (13-6, 6-5) made four errors, and the Pirates turned all of them into runs.
“We work hard on defense so we don’t make mistakes, and if other teams make mistakes, we are going to take advantage,” Hilton said. “We talk about it every time out — when they make mistakes, we’ve got to jump on them. We’ve got to make them pay for it.”
The shoddy fielding ruined a fine start by Wilson, who pitched five innings.
“We need to be playing cleaner baseball than what we’ve been playing,” said Palmetto coach Joe Collis. “You can’t give a team like that many extra outs. And we have them four extra outs. Four errors — that’s unacceptable. Four errors to their four hits. Take those four errors away, and I’d like to see what happens. But good teams make it hurt, and they made it hurt (Thursday).”
Stephen Fischer scored two runs for Braden River, and Monroe allowed three hits in four innings to earn the win.
Ryan Grant blanked Palmetto over the final three innings to earn the save.
“Great atmosphere, and it was a good night,” Hilton said. “What makes it even better is getting the ‘W.”
Wilson and Connor Browning knocked in a run during Palmetto’s two-run third inning.
It wasn’t the result Palmetto wanted. But playing at McKechnie Field for a night made things a bit more bearable for Collis.
“It was a lot of fun, a lot of people in the stands. That was good for the boys,” he said. “That part of it was really neat, and I enjoyed myself, and I think the kids did too. Obviously, we wish we were on the other end of the decision.”
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