Mike Ridaught
The Buchholz baseball team got a strong performance from senior Caden Kresak in a 9-1 win against visiting Forest (Ocala) on Tuesday night in a Class 6A-District 2 game.
The senior tossed five innings and allowed only one run on two hits while walking only three and striking out nine as the Bobcats (4-1-1, 1-0) won their fourth straight.
“We had good starting pitching again, which was great,” said Buchholz coach Ron Brooks. “Defensively, we had one error on the night, which is not terrible, and offensively we scored in every inning but two and put some crooked numbers up there.”
Kresak set the tone early by striking out the first four batters and six of the first nine. The Bobcats scored three runs in the third and three runs in the fourth to break the game open.
“The energy was really good,” Brooks said. “Just a really good team win.”
Buchholz finished with the game with 10 hits, including three doubles.
They opened the scoring in the second on an RBI double by sophomore Kyle Brewer, which scored freshman Noah Hayes who had walked.
Forest (4-4, 0-2), which had its 3-game winning streak snapped, tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third on an RBI double by shortstop Bradley White. However, that would be their only run of the night thanks to Kresak, who managed to strike out the side in the inning.
Kresak helped the team offensively by finishing 2-for-3 with two runs scored. He scored the first run of the inning in the bottom of third in what would prove to be the game-winning run.
Hayes, who had an RBI single in the third, came up big with a 3-run double in the fourth inning to put Buchholz up 7-1.
“He capitalized on his opportunities,” Brooks said. “He had some good at-bats. Just like a lot of guys did. Kaden had a big hit with two strikes, Kyle Brewer (2-for-3, double, RBI, run scored) same thing. I was really proud of our approach at the plate.”
Senior catcher Dario Astudillo finished 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored for Buchholz, which will travel to Forest on Thursday night at 7 p.m.