Saturday, March 29, 1997

Bulldogs take easy victory from Brady

By MARK WILSON

Staff Writer

Brady's baseball team found a way to overshadow the pitching of Wylie's Grant Gregg Friday - horrendous defense.

While Gregg was pitching a five-hit shutout, Brady was committing seven errors in only four innings on "defense" as Wylie notched an easy 10-0 District 6-3A victory at Bulldog Field. The game was stopped because of the 10-run rule after Brady batted in the top of the fifth inning.

Wylie had nine hits, but all 10 runs were unearned thanks to the rough day in the field for the visiting Bulldogs. Brady, which was playing without its starting catcher, also had three passed balls that helped figure into the scoring.

Wylie, ranked No. 8 in the state, won for the 11th time in 13 games to move to 4-0 in District 6-3A and 13-5 overall. Coach Clay Martin's Bulldogs are the only team without a loss in the first half of district play, with three games to go before the second half starts.

Gregg (5-2) threw only 56 pitches and did not walk anyone. He has issued only six bases on balls in 372/3 innings this season while notching a 2.42 earned run average.

"I started off slow," said the Bulldog left-hander. "After a while, I started to calm down. Our guys just made the plays. I've just got to throw strikes and let them make the plays."

Greg McMinn was 3 for 3 with three runs batted in for Wylie, and Marc Deffenbaugh and Jacob Pruitt each contributed two RBI.

"Grant had another good outing today," Wylie coach Clay Martin said. "He threw strikes the whole day, really. One of the biggest things was when we had to make plays, we made 'em."

That wasn't the case for Brady, which had two errors and two passed balls in the first inning alone as Wylie took a 3-0 lead.

"Errors really hurt us, and they hit at the right times," said Brady coach Brent Futrell. "We had a very poor game Monday in Eastland. We came back and hit today, but we didn't have the defense to back it up."

In the first inning for Wylie, Deffenbaugh reached on an error, and took third on two passed balls by Robert Schafer. He scored as Jacob Pruitt beat out an infield hit. Pruitt stole second and moved to third on Gregg's sacrifice fly before Powell drove him in with another sacrifice fly. Scott Unger followed with a double to the fence, and continued to third as left fielder Marcus Revada let the ball roll past him on the rebound.

Wylie's five-run third got rolling with two outs, but it was the first of two errors by third baseman Zeb Ferris that allowed Ryan White to reach base. After Derrick Hughes walked, McMinn came through with an RBI single and Ryan Starks walked.

After Hughes scored on a passed ball and McMinn and Starks advanced one base, Deffenbaugh slapped a two-run single to right-center field and went on to third on an error. Pruitt completed the scoring with a single that brought in Deffenbaugh.

In the fourth for Wylie, White walked and Hughes reached on an error before McMinn sliced a double down the left-field line to score both runners.

Wylie's next game will be Tuesday at Ballinger. Jerrod Brown (3-0) is scheduled to start on the mound.