Westside Braves baffle Willows for sweep

The Westside Braves hosted Willows for an American Legion baseball doubleheader Thursday, with the Braves pulling off a sweep with wins of 14-5 and 9-4 at Corning High School.

Westside wasted little time establishing a lead in the first game, sending nine batters to the dish in a four-run, five-hit first.

Michael Garcia got things going with a single and Daniel Mahutga walked, before Cole MacLachlan and Trevor Rau each stroked doubles, with Rau’s scoring Garcia and Mahutga. Austin Arbogast also singled to chase Rau across the plate.

Tyler McIntyre stroked the first of his two doubles in the second inning, scoring March mason who had walked, and Mahutga singled in Garcia, who had walked. The inning could have been worse for Willows, but they caught McIntyre attempting a straight steal of home, and then picked Mahutga off second to end the inning.

The Braves threatened to end the game early with a five-run fourth to go ahead 11-0, but Willows was not ready to lay down, orchestrating a five-run fifth of its own.

Sebastian Manhke’s one-out triple was followed by Casey Taylor’s run-scoring ground out, and Willows kept it going by scoring four more times with two out.

Edguardo Briones walked before Clark Love, Kyle Wycoff, Taylor Collins and Seth Fleming all followed with singles, with the latter four each driving in a run to make it 11-5.

The Braves came back with a lone run in the fifth and tacked on two more in the sixth to end the contest.

Westside also turned in a pair of sparkling plays on the defensive side, as Brad Paschall made a diving catch of a fly ball in right field during the sixth inning, and left fielder Arbogast came up throwing and pegged a Willows runner out at the plate in the seventh.

Collins collected three singles for Willows, with Forrest Bateman adding a pair.

Garcia and MacLachlan each doubled and singled twice for the Braves, with McIntyre stroking a pair of doubles.

Willows kept Westside off the board until the fourth inning in the nightcap, but the Braves scored once in the fourth and tacked on six more in the fifth and two in the seventh, while limiting Willows to two runs after the third inning.

Love, Bateman and Drake Mateson each picked up a pair of hits for Willows.

Willows played a doubleheader Tuesday in Chico against Chico Red, and is playing in the weekend’s July Fourth tourney in Redding.

Contact Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or sports@tcnpress.com.