Branham’s homer helps Altman, Cowboys to win
Gaither senior SJ Branham broke a scoreless game with this three-run home run to left field pushing the Cowboys ahead far enough to defeat Bloomingdale in a showdown of Hillsborough County Top 10 teams.
By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor
VALRICO – Saturday afternoon’s Top 10 matchup between Gaither and Bloomingdale lined up for an aces afternoon – and it did not disappoint.
But an explosive and competitive sixth-inning from both offenses proved the difference as it was slugger SJ Branham’s three-run home run that ended the stalemate and pushed the lead out just far enough for the Cowboys to escape with a 3-2 victory.
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Gaither’s Matt Altman pitched five scoreless innings against the Bulls and improved to 5-0 on the season.
Bulls senior Vaughn Osting and Cowboys senior Matt Altman went at it for five scoreless innings, the former struck out eight to that point mixing his three pitches well, while the latter attacked with fastballs early, before finding his off-speed stuff in his later innings, working around three singles and one walk and striking out six.
Click here to view more than 120 photos from this game.
Then Altman’s day was done after 88 pitches and he needed some support to get his county-leading fifth win.
“Matt is never boring,” Gaither skipper Nelson North said. “He’s a bulldog. What else can you say? He makes pitches when he has to, he’s just a competitor.”
Gaither senior RHP Matt Altman
Branham, who scuffled at the plate to start the year, stepped up with a pair aboard in the top of the sixth, and the 6-foot-4 slugger fouled a pair off before smashing a belt-high fastball over the wall in left field.
“This was a good team we faced out here, so I knew with runners in scoring position I had to get a job done,” Branham said. “I had fouled off two curveballs, so at that point I was like, ‘see ball-hit ball’ and I let it fly.”
Branham also sent this elevated fastball into centerfield for the game’s first hit in the first inning.
Branham, who went 2-for-3 in the win and has collected six of his nine RBI in the last eight days after having just one hit in the Cowboys first six games. After the game, he said he wasn’t letting a slow start offensively get in his head.
“It’s just about trusting the process,” he said. “I had a great fall, sometimes when you go down the only other way is up. I had to keep grinding and it showed up today.”
Cowboys junior Ryan Deak singles in the sixth inning.
Gaither’s (10-1) Jose Gutierrez started the sixth with a single, but a double-play looked like it might allow Osting to escape with another clean inning. But a walk to Martin Galo and a single for Ryan Deak chased the East Tennessee State signee from the game. Though not significantly under pressure on the mound (twice erasing runners with successful pickoffs at first base), the Cowboys were able to stretch Osting’s early-inning pitch count out a bit.
“I think we knew they (Gaither) are a really good fastball hitting team, so our game plan was to make them beat us with off-speed and I think that ran Vaughn’s pitch-count up a little bit,” Bloomingdale (7-2) head coach Kris Wilken said. “But he threw the ball extremely well today.”
Bloomingdale senior Vaughn Osting struck out eight in a losing effort, pitching 5 2/3 innings allowing two runs on four hits and two walks.
Wilken’s counterpart, North tipped his hat to his team’s opponent and their starting pitcher after the game.
“First of all, what a great team Bloomingdale is all-around,” North said. “Their guy on the mound is legit. He really, really is. His command in the zone is great with three pitches and we knew it was going to be like that.”
But once Osting was out, Branham was ready to pounce on new Bulls pitcher Luke Long, attacking sending an 0-2 pitch out of play in a hurry.
“I guess you could call (the pitch) a mistake,” North said. “But SJ really went after it and got it.”
SJ Branham celebrates with his team and lets the visiting Cowboys bleachers hear it after his home run.
Long regrouped to finish off the half-inning with a strikeout, and the Bulls were similarly ready for a new look and attacked Cowboys reliever Carter Kindberg immediately. Payton Jennings, Evan Plusquellic and Saul Aponte each singled to start the home-sixth, and Bloomingdale scratched one back on a double-play ball, before JJ Santiago singled up the middle to cut the deficit to one.
Gaither SS Ryan Deak throws to finish off a double-play in the sixth inning.
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Bloomingdale’s JJ Santiago singled in a run in the sixth inning.
The Bulls added a base runner on a walk and had two in scoring position to threaten, but righty reliever Adam Smolka got out of the jam with a groundball to second.
Gaither’s Adam Smolka nipped the Bulls rally attempt in the sixth inning.
Both teams got strong seventh-inning relief with Bulls senior Javier Navas-Hoyer striking out a pair and working around an error behind him, to give Bloomingdale one last shot.
Bulls senior Javier Navaas-Hoyer struck out two in his one inning of relief.
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Gaither senior Martin Galo picked up the save with a scoreless seventh inning.
Then Galo moved from third base to the mound for the Cowboys for final half-inning, and hit the first batter he faced but retired the next batter, got a lift from catcher Jose Gutierrez who caught a stealing runner, and ended the game with a strikeout to earn the save.
“That felt really great, defense is a big part (of the game) for me and I’m glad I got it done,” Gutierrez said of his caught-stealing in the seventh. “We’ve been working on that play all year long … working on my arm, long-tossing every day and getting a feel for it.”
Gaither 2B Yenier Chirino took a throw from Cowboys catcher Jose Gutierrez and drops down a tag on Bulls pinch-runner Jack Grant in the seventh inning.
Altman has excelled in the No. 1 role for the Cowboys this year, and said he was grateful his offense did enough to stretch out the lead, while his defense finished strong to get him to a 5-0 pitching record.
“I know I’m going out to try and be the best, the same as the guy on the other team is going out to try and be the best,” Altman said. “I love doing this. It’s what I want to do. I knew against a very good pitcher like that it was going to come down to which offense and defense could come through for one of us.”
Bloomingdale RF Evan Plusquellic gloves a fly ball in the third inning.
Wilken said he was pleased that his team fought back with the late runs and credits last year’s Saladino Tournament championship and a 6A state semifinal appearance with engraining that in many of his returning players
“I think it speaks to their maturity,” Wilken said of his team. “They’re a team that has been around, they have done it, so I think we are just trying to figure out exactly who we are. The early schedule has been a little tough for us to stay on edge, so hopefully we are stacking up some really good teams here and we’ll get that edge back. We’ll be fine.”
Gaither’s Albert Antinori charges a single into leftfield.
Gaither hosts Jefferson on Tuesday, before a home game against East Bay on Thursday and another against the Indians to start the Saladino from Jefferson next Saturday; the Bulls bookend games against Durant (at home Tuesday, and at Lennard to start Saladino play on Saturday) around a Thursday visit from Brandon.
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#7 Gaither 3
#6 Bloomingdale 2
G 000|003|0 – |3|5|1
B 000|002|0 – |2|7|1
W – Altman (5-0); L – Osting (1-2); S – Galo (2)
HR – Branham (G). Records – G (10-1); B (7-2).
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