Brewster baseball opens season with close loss to Bulldogs

OKANOGAN – The Brewster varsity baseball team opened its season on the road Tuesday, March 13, with a close one-run, 5-4 loss to the 1A Okanogan Bulldogs of the 1A Caribou Trail League. The Bears then hosted Oroville for their first Central Washington 2B league doubleheader and won both games.
The Bears broke a scoreless first two innings against Okanogan with a pair of runs in the third inning.
“Isaac Baker reached (base) on an error with two outs and then stole second,” said head coach Todd Phillips. “Quincy Vassar drew a walk and was replaced by Zane Madden as a pinch runner. Jeff Sonneman then tripled down the line to plate two.”
Okanogan waited two innings before responding in the sixth inning. Gavin Cohen reached base on an error and stole second. Hunter Rupert scored Cohen with his second double on the day and was later brought home on Gage Wilson’s two-out single.
“We regained the lead in the top of the seventh,” said Phillips. “Corey Jarrell led off with a single and moved to second on Joe Taylor’s sacrifice bunt.  Corey scored on an error off the bat of Isaac Baker.  Quincy Vassar than drove in Isaac with a double.”
Okanogan rallied for the win in the bottom of the seventh “because we continued to struggle with the bottom of their order,” Phillips said.
Jarrett Smith singled with one out and Cohen drew a walk. Rupert singled to load the bases and a bases-loaded walk on Jacob Stanley drew Okanogan within a run.
Sonneman struck out the Bulldog’s third hitter for the second out, but Connor Ashworth singled down first base line to score two runs for the win.
“I am going to chalk this down to poor coaching,” said Phillips. “We had a plan to limit our pitchers first game out, and I went off it a little bit.”
Phillips claimed he may have allowed Sonneman to throw for too many innings. 
“(We) had fresh arms that could have come in and shut the door,” said Phillips. “We need to compete more; we get complacent because we don’t play in enough challenging games throughout the year.”
Phillips said that if the Bears want to be a team to reckon with this season and make a deep run in the playoffs they need to be more focused and want to compete more. 
“We have some guys who are willing to fight,” said Phillips, “but you need more than four or five guys out of 18 who are willing to put in the work and willing to step-up.”
Okanogan’s Justin Stanley was the winning pitcher. Sonneman was charged with the loss
Triples: Brewster - Jeff Sonneman (1), Okanogan - Hunter Rupert (2).
Double: Brewster - Quincy Vassar (1).
Oroville falls
Even though the Bears swept both game against the Hornets, Phillips said Oroville is much improved over past seasons.
“Definitely the best Oroville team they’ve had since I’ve been in Brewster,” Phillips said.
In the first game, Sonneman and Joe Taylor both connected for home runs and Taylor also hit a triple.
Doubles came off the bats of Taylor 3, Sonneman 2, Corey Jarrell 2, Kade Kelpman, Logan McGuire, and Ben Witt.
Kelpman was the winning pitcher.
The second game “was a good opportunity to get everyone some at-bats,” Phillips said.
Nobody hit for singles, triples or home runs but doubles aplenty from Taylor (4), Sonneman (3), David Stewart (2), and Zane Madden.
The winning pitcher was Anthony Olvera.
Brewster was scheduled to host Bridgeport on Tuesday, March 20, and will play a doubleheader at Soap Lake on Saturday, March 24. The Bears will be at Bridgeport at 4:30 p.m. next Tuesday, March 27.