Bears drop Senior Day baseball DH to Eastmont, 8-7 and 7-6

BREWSTER – Bears varsity baseball senior catcher Logan McGuire played his final high school games in a doubleheader against Eastmont on Senior Day May 15. Head coach Todd Phillips had effusive praise for McGuire who was a varsity member as an eighth grader and was the anchor for his team this year.

“It is the end of an era of Brewster baseball,” said Phillips about McGuire. “Not often do you get a guy to be a mainstay at a single position for a five-year period. That just does not happen.”

McGuire’s baseball stats are hard to match, Phillips said.

“He took part in 70 Brewster wins, won a league title every year there was one, a district title, and two state trophy teams. I wish I knew how many innings and pitches he has caught for us,” said Phillips. “Nearly every single game since he was in eighth grade.”

Phillips said he is super proud of the leadership McGuire displayed this year dealing with one of the most difficult situations a person could ever imagine.

The coach said Senior Day is always a bittersweet moment but especially so in this pandemic year with the loss of the team’s star catcher and the passing of teammate Cade Gebbers.

“Every player wore No. 10for these two games as it would have been Cade’s Senior Day,” Phillips said.

Phillips said he regrets that there is not any sort of playoff in this short and unusual season.

“We would have made a deep run into the playoffs,” said Phillips, “and probably brought home some hardware.

Both games against Eastmont were close with the Wildcats pulling out one-run wins in both.

“We should have come away with at least a split but just could not make a clutch play offensively or defensively,” said Phillips. “Had the tying run 9-0 feet away and once with less than two outs.”

Wildcats win 8-7

In the first game Eastmont got on top quick with a home run off Reese Vassar’s first pitch. Vassar tied the game up with his first career homer in the bottom of the second inning. Eastmont dug a hole for the Bears with six runs in the third inning. The Bears chipped away at the lead with two runs in the third inning, three in the fourth, and one in the sixth to tie the score.

Game 1 stats

Innings             1          2          3          4          5          6          7          R          H          E 

Eastmont         1          0          6          0          0          0          1          8          8          1 

Brewster          0          1          2          3          0          1          0          7          7          0 

W-Kuske 

L- Reese Vassar (1-3) 

S-None 

2B-Brewster: Tyson Schertenleib (6); Eastmont: Ruhl, Schneider 

3B-Brewster: AJ Woodward (2); Eastmont: None 

HR-Brewster: Reese Vassar; Eastmont: Popoff 

Eastmont by 1 run

“We lost focus and energy in this game,” concluded Phillips. “Started off great, finished poorly. I don’t know if it was the heat or the fact that we thought we had things locked up or what.”

Unlike game one, the Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and added two more runs in the second to lead the Wildcats 5-1. The third inning was even-up at both teams scored a run apiece. Taking a page from Brewster first game determination the Wildcats chipped away at the Bears’ lead scoring five runs in the last four innings while holding Brewster scoreless. It was just enough to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, 7-6.

“We have a goal of competing for a state championship next year,” said Phillips.

Game 2 stats

 Innings            1          2          3          4          5          6          7          R          H          E 

Eastmont         0          1          1          0          1          1          3          7          9          1 

Brewster          3          2          1          0          0          0          0          6          9          1 

W-Richards 

L-Brady Wulf (0-2) 

S-None 

2B-Brewster: Tyson Schertenleib 2 (8), Reese Vassar 2 (3), Kelson Gebbers (2); Eastmont: Smiley 

3B-None 

HR-None