Brayden Stevens pitched the NEN Bluejays into the District Semifinals Saturday as the Bluejays, given up for dead and seeded seventh, posted their second straight win over a team over .500 with an 8-3 win over Tri-County.
Stevens got off to a rocky start, hitting the first three Mustang batters he faced and loading the bases. That led to two Tri-County runs crossing the plate. But he settled down and struck out 12 batters in six innings of work, overpowering the Mustang batters.
Meanwhile, the Bluejays, who had beaten Gilman City with their power hitting, used speed and aggression on the basepaths to take control of the game. They used a combination of scratch hits, errors, and stolen bases to move runners around. Coach Cody Green has preached running out plays hard with both the junior high girls and the NEN varsity boys, and it paid off in Saturday’s game.
Stevens ran out of pitches after six innings, but Reece Gray came on to pitch in the seventh and set down the Mustangs in order to close out the game.
The Bluejays were to have played King City Tuesday night. Like Northeast, King City was not reason to give up on their season and took Gilman City to 11 innings before securing the 5-4 win in a game that was not finished until 12:27 pm. The game was to have been played on Monday, but it got rained out.
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