Bulls dominate in 11-2 victory over Freedom

Bulls senior Dawson Harman belted a three-run homer in the fourth inning (photo by Lily Belcher).

By Lily Belcher, Correspondent

NEW TAMPA – Strong at-bats and capitalizing with runners on proved to be all Bloomingdale needed to kickstart an offensive outpouring, giving the Bulls an 11-2 win at Freedom.

Dawson Harman started off the game with a leadoff walk and scored off a two-run homer by Cooper Hinson to give Bloomingdale an early 2-0 lead.

“Cooper has been swinging the bat really well. He’s been one of the guys who has been a spark for us, so no real shock that he was able to do that,” coach Kris Wilken said about Hinson’s early home run.

Tyler Clinton tacked on a third run after leading off the second with a double and scoring off a ground out by Vincent Dinzeo.

Bloomingdale (4-0) headed into the top of the fourth with a comfortable 3-0 lead. Freedom (1-3) starting pitcher Dylan Hand gave up three consecutive base hits to load the bases with no outs for the relentless Bulls offense.

Dinzeo picked up his second RBI with a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Dawson Rankin from third. Harman stepped up to the plate with runners on the corners and hit a three-run home run into straightaway centerfield, extending Bloomingdale’s commanding lead to seven runs.

“I really just felt myself,” said Harman. “I kept it simple [with] 80% swings because I’ve been over-swinging a lot.”

Despite the Bulls’ undefeated record heading into the game against Freedom, Wilken admitted his offense had been struggling while trying to do too much at the plate. However, prior to Thursday’s game he challenged hitters, like Harman, to take a more controlled approach to score more runs.

In the bottom of the fourth, Freedom picked up their first run of the night when Brayden Nanns singled to start off the inning and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch and an error. Connor Cress grounded out to first, allowing Nanns to score on the fielder’s choice.

Leading 7-1 heading into the sixth inning, Bloomingdale capitalized off fielding and pitching errors by Freedom’s defense. An RBI base hit by pinch-hitter Luke Rossi scored Bloomingdale’s eighth run and pinch hitters Cole Gannon and James Osting scored on an error and wild pitch to give Bloomingdale a 10-1 lead. Another RBI base hit by Isaiah Perez allowed the Bulls’ eleventh and final run to score.

Patriots’ Bryce Nanns homer gave Freedom their second run of the night late in the sixth inning, but it wasn’t enough to jump start Freedom’s offense against the Bulls’ pitching.

Senior Jacob Magadan struck out three in four innings of work to earn his second win of the year.

Senior Jacob Magadan picked up his second win in his first start of the season with the Bulls as well. The Barry University commit struck out three and gave up one earned run in his four-inning outing.

Wilken was able to pull Magadan after four innings to give him some rest after the offense came out with a strong lead early in the game. With the first three victories of the season coming off a tighter margin, Wilken had stretched his strongest pitchers, but took advantage of the dominating offense to give Magadan well-deserved rest.

“It just feels good when your teammates just have your back when you’re pitching, making plays and when your offense scores seven runs early, you just go out there and compete and it’s just easy,” said the right-hander.

Bloomingdale will visit Spoto next, and Freedom will travel to Chamberlain on Tuesday.

⚾⚾⚾⚾

Bloomingdale 11, Freedom 2

B 210|404|0 – |11|11|1
F 000|101|0 – |2|6|1
W – Magadan (2-0); L – Hand (1-1)
2B – Clinton (B); HR – Harman, Hinson (B); Bry. Nanns (F). Records – B (4-0); F (1-3).

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