Braden River baseball rallies past Brandon to win district title

J.J. Bouche ducked his head as he saw the ball whirling toward it, but not enough to prevent the errant pitch from glancing off his helmet.

The catcher started up the first-base line, save for a brief detour. As he stepped past the dirt of the left-handed batter’s box, the senior turned to his teammates in the dugout and started hopping. “Let’s. Go. Right. Now,” he yelled, pausing and clapping for extra emphasis between each word.

Not much had gone right for Braden River until Bouche’s hit by pitch gave the top-seeded Pirates runners on first and second in the bottom of the fifth inning at Don Powell Field, igniting the rally that produced a 4-2 win over Brandon on Thursday in the Class 7A-District 9 final.

Braden River pitcher John Bean III struggled for three-plus innings, digging Braden River a hole. The offense behind him didn’t do much either, collecting two hits and striking out six times during the first four innings.

But once the Pirates (17-10) finally put pressure on the Eagles with two on and no outs, everything fell into place. Two batters later, Gavin Root laced a double down the left-field line to score Giancarlo Gamboa and Bouche, tying the game at 2. Two batters later, Braden River took the lead on an RBI groundout by Bean.

“We got lots of energy going through the dugout at that time,” said pitcher Andre Fonseca, who entered in relief of Bean during the bottom of the fourth and picked up the win. “We just kept it up through the rest of the game.”

Fonseca delivered four innings of scoreless relief, scattering a pair of hits and a walk, and striking out three. He gave himself an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth by drawing a bases-loaded walk before stepping back out to the mound for a 1-2-3 top of the seventh.

“(Fonseca) had great outings all year, but we had our two senior guys that we were going to roll with,” head coach Craig Page said of Bean and Tuesday’s semifinal starter Ryan Duncan. “(Fonseca)’s not fazed by anything. To come into that spot, that was huge.”

The Pirates will not know their opponent in the Class 7A-Region 3 postseason until Friday when St. Petersburg Northeast faces Land O’ Lakes Sunlake. The loser, though, will travel to Braden River High School, where the Pirates will finally be able to once again house a district-championship trophy.

“Especially with how we ended our season last year, we had a mission from Day 1,” Page said. “They were ready when it came. They weren’t going to give up tonight.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2017 at 10:59 PM with the headline "Braden River baseball rallies past Brandon to win district title."