BETHANY – Junior Josh Pierce struck out 12 batters in a complete game outing to power Bethany to a 3-2 win over Byng Tuesday (March 19).

“(Pierce’s) a guy that we’ve kind of counted on,” Bethany coach Brandon Ruiz said. “Him and Charlie (Tolle) both do a good job with our district games. When it when it comes time for us to need a win he’s got it done for us.”

Behind Pierce, the Bronchos(6-5-1) didn’t get much more offense than in Monday’s 4-2 loss at Byng.

Trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Andrew Taber reached on a two-out error by Byng third baseman Kendon Wood (one of five Pirate errors in the game). Junior Charlie Tolle followed with a walk. Up came Pierce, who has come up with big hits this season in addition to his performance on the mound.

Pierce singled to right line on the second pitch of the at-bat

“C’mon! get down!” Pierce shouted as he went down the first base line as the ball dropped in front of right fielder Malachi Schilrett. Taber scored to tie the ball game at 1.

With one out in the fifth inning and senior Cade Ross on the first base, Taber laid down a sacrifice bunt to Byng pitcher Cooper McCage. Taber reached first safely after a bad throw from McCage.

McCage loaded the bases by hitting Tolle. Pierce followed by witha sharp groundout to Byng first baseman Preston Welch, scoring Ross. Joe Berry scored Taber after another error Wood at third, giving Bethany a 3-1 lead.

The second run turned out to be important as Pierce gave up three straight singles with one out in the top of the seventh to load the bases. Byng’s Ryan Shelton scored on a passed ball to make it 3-2.

Pierce got pinch-hitter Brycen Smith to pop out to Ross behind second base for the second out. Byng’s Hagen Graham, who shut down Bethany’s offense Monday on the mound, pinch hit. Graham worked a full-count but struck out, giving Bethany the win.

Ruiz credited coach Darren Willis for his work with Pierce and the pitching staff for being able to work around the trouble in the ninth inning

“He’s been working on implementing new pitches,” Ruiz said about Willis, who is in his first year as pitching coach at Bethany. “The guys work well with him.”

The Broncho offense didn’t light up the scoreboard, but took advantage of Byng miscues, something Ruiz wanted to see.

“I challenged our team just to put the ball in play, especially with two strikes, having a better two-strike approach,” Ruiz said. “I thought we did, we limited our strikeouts from yesterday and got a couple of bunts down and just put pressure on the defense and that’s kind of what we need to do moving forward.”

McCage struck out five Bronchos with two of those coming in the sixth inning after Bethany grabbed the lead.

The win gave Bethany a split in the series with the Pirates and improved their District 4A-1 record to 5-1, tied for second with Harrah, one game behind McLoud at 6-0 in district.

UP NEXT: Bethany will play in the Tuttle Spring Break Festival starting Thursday (March 21). The Bronchos will play Elgin at 1:30 that day. On Friday, they’ll face Lawton MacArthur at 3 p.m. The Bronchos finish the festival Saturday at 4 p.m. against host Tuttle.

Ruiz expects to use pitchers who haven’t pitched much this season in the festival to keep Pierce and Tolle fresh when Bethany resumes district play next week against Harrah.

“We’ll see what (the new pitchers) got,” Ruiz said. “They’re gonna get some innings and it will be a good experience,”

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R
Byng	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
Bethany	0	0	1	0	2	0	X	3

BYNG	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
M Carter	3	1	1	0	0	1
P Welch	3	0	0	0	0	3
C McCage	2	0	0	1	1	0
B Boatwright	3	0	0	0	0	2
R Shelton	3	0	1	0	0	1
K Wood	2	0	0	0	0	2
Z Griffin	2	0	1	0	1	0
L Alexander	2	0	0	0	0	1
K Stephens	2	0	0	0	0	1
H Francis	0	1	0	0	0	0
E Welch	1	0	1	0	0	0
B Smith	1	0	0	0	0	0
H Graham	1	0	0	0	0	1
TOTALS	25	2	4	1	2	12

BYNG	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
C McCage ( L )	6	1	3	0	2	5

BETHANY	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO
C Ross	3	1	0	0	0	0
A Taber	2	2	0	0	0	1
C Tolle	0	0	0	0	1	0
J Pierce	3	0	1	2	0	1
J Berry	3	0	0	1	0	0
L Reither	3	0	0	0	0	2
G Finley	1	0	0	0	1	0
C Sigler	1	0	0	0	0	0
B Cross	3	0	0	0	0	1
L Moore	2	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	21	3	1	3	2	5

BETHANY	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Pierce ( W )	7	4	2	2	2	12