The Bucks Centurions baseball team found life late in both games with Brookdale Community College, but weren’t able to capitalize on it, as they lost 6-12 and 3-10, respectively.

From the start, Brookdale was executing solid base runs with plenty of steals in the first three innings. .

In the top of the fourth, Matt Creevey came on to pitch for Bucks, who settled down the Brookdale offense with a 1, 2, 3 inning.

Likewise, in the bottom of the fifth, Brookdale answered with a pitching change of their own: RHP Steven Torrisi, from Wycoff, New Jersey. Like Creevey, he too, made quick work of the Bucks’ offense, shutting them down via a 1, 2, 3 inning.

An inning later provided perhaps the turnaround Bucks needed, as it started out with an error which led to a Brookdale triple. However, Creevey managed to pitch out of the threat, which clearly had the momentum shift into Bucks’ favor in the bottom of the sixth.

The rally was started by Kenny Searle, who led off the inning with a hard hit single to shallow right. Following another hit, Brookdale’s Torrisi was clearly rattled, throwing a pitch behind the backstop, which advanced the runners to second and third base.

In the top of the seventh, Brookdale managed to start off the inning with a sacrifice fly, making the score 10-6 in favor of Brookdale. For Bucks, there was an injury scare: Zachary Stuebing rolled his ankle trying to assist in an out. Following a few moments of uncertainty in the infield, Stuebing stayed in the game.

Unfortunately, Bucks’ pitching surrendered a two-run homerun to Brookdale, making the score 12-6. In the bottom of the inning, Bucks’ offense went down 1, 2, 3 and the game was over.

After the game, Searle had this to say: “[Brookdale’s] pitching had me; they have a bunch of power arms and speed in their line-up.”

“They were able to keep our hitters in check throughout,” Coach Donald Perry stated. “We need to get better with our starting pitching.”