Strong pitching, clutch hitting lift Placentia Punishers to second win at Bronco Series

Placentia Punishers coaches talk to their players after Saturday’s victory. (Photo courtesy Placentia Pony Baseball).

Four pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout to help the Placentia Punishers 12-and-under baseball all-stars defeat Tijuana, Mexico 6-0 Saturday night in the second round of the Bronco League World Series in Loredo, Texas.

Placentia, coached by Brandon Smith, broke open a scoreless game with three runs in the late innings and three more in the seventh and moves on to play again on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

Grady Klovstad, Andrew Churney, Dean Clewett and Cole Grothues combined on the shuout. In 2 2/3 scoreless innings, Churney, the starter, struck out six and did not allow a hit and in 2 2/3 scoreless innings Grothues struck out three and allowed one hit.

Offensively, Klovstad was 1 for 3 with a run scored, Churney had two RBI and a run scored, Tyler Fritz was 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI, Gerken had an RBI and a run scored, Caden Smith had an RBI and Ben Hansen and Logan Weiss each scored a run.

“I was happy I could get things started with an RBI at my second at bat, but all the credit should go to our pitchers who were amazing last night,” Gerken said Sunday.

“Our pitchers did awesome and all the boys were ready to battle,” added Fritz. “Our coaches told us with the wind blowing at us hard we had to focus on hitting line drives and hitting the ball on the ground against Mexico, a very good team. I feel awesome about our last night’s win.”

“Churney did a great job as our starting pitcher so I wanted to keep it going where he left off,” said Grothues. “Our defense is awesome, so just needed to keep it low and throw strikes. Our batters hit line drives and grounders because of the wind, which let us get on base to get the win.”

Placentia opened the tournament Friday with a decisive victory over San Juan, Texas.