BRIGHTON — Hartland baseball coaches and players were wondering out loud after the fact why Brighton didn’t intentionally walk Brayden Crowe in the seventh inning.
Mind you, the bases were loaded, so a walk would have forced a run across the plate.
But it’s a riskier move to pitch to Crowe these days, so walking Crowe in that situation may become a viable option for opposing teams.
Two runs scored as a result of challenging Crowe, enabling Hartland to tie the game with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. The Eagles followed with two more runs in the inning Monday to beat the Bulldogs, 6-4.
In a sport in which a 30% success rate is outstanding, Crowe had a better than 50-50 chance of delivering at least two runs in that situation.
With a 2-for-3 performance against Brighton, Crowe boosted his batting average to .574 in 54 at-bats. He has driven in 30 runs, 21 more than anyone else on the team and 11 more than anyone else in Livingston County.
“I’ve just been trying to not do too much,” said Crowe, who hit .250 in 64 at-bats as a sophomore last season. “I’ve been seeing it well.”
Hartland had a runner on second base and was down to its final out when Brady Quinn was hit by a pitch and Michael Zielinski singled to load the bases.
Crowe lined the first pitch he saw to right-center field to tie the game. It’s the third time this season he’s delivered the tying or winning run in the seventh inning.
“It feels pretty good when he’s coming up with the game on the line,” Hartland coach Brad Guenther said. “Not only is he hitting that, but when it’s been pressure situations and we’ve needed him the most, he’s come through almost every single time.
“It’s going to be tough when he doesn’t get that big hit for us. Everyone’s just kind of expecting it to happen. It’s an incredible season he’s had. I just try not to say much when he’s running this good. I just get out of the way and try not to mess him up.”
The go-ahead run scored on a throwing error off a grounder by Landon Brown. The sixth run scored on a passed ball.
The Eagles (14-6-1) will take a nine-game winning streak into the rematch at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hartland.
Trusting hot pitcher
Brighton senior Parker Aten was cruising along through five innings, shutting out Hartland while allowing only three hits.
After Aten hit Quinn with a pitch in the seventh, Brighton coach Charlie Christner made a mound visit but didn’t make a pitching change. Zielinski and Crowe followed with back-to-back singles, but Christner believed Aten earned the right to finish the game.
Aten came into the game with a 1.18 earned run average in four appearances. He pitched only 9 1/3 innings in four appearances last season, but got the start in the first game of a big two-game set with Hartland.
“He’s been great all year for us,” Christner said. “I just felt like he was still good. He had just given up a hit or two here or there. I thought he deserved to give it a shot. He’s a senior. We’ll roll with him. That was the mindset that he deserved that opportunity. He pitched great all day.”
Wake-up call
Hartland’s offense was quiet most of the game. That changed when junior Lucas Frack hit a two-run homer to left-center field to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning.
Brighton would reclaim the lead, 4-3, on a three-run homer by Cooper Andrzejewski in the bottom of the sixth, but Frack’s homer provided a boost that carried over into the seventh.
“The approach was to single over the shortstop’s head,” Frack said. “I got a fastball down the middle and didn’t miss it. The energy was kind of dead. It came back real quick after that swing.”
Frack got off to a slow start this season after missing last year following Tommy John surgery. He was hitting .167 going into last week, but is 9-for-17 (.529) in the last five games.
“I had to put in twice the amount of work as everybody else since I was a year behind, but I feel like I’m in a good place now,” Frack said.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Livingston County's hottest hitter delivers in clutch again for Hartland vs. Brighton
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