Baseball Rolls Into WHAC Tournament Semifinals After Taking Down Cornerstone

(Rockford, MI)-- The Cleary Cougar baseball barely broke a sweat as they advanced to the WHAC Tournament semifinals after defeating the 8-seed Cornerstone Golden Eagles 14-4 Friday afternoon.

Cleary would load the bases in the second inning, and Conner Boone would hit an RBI fielder's choice that scored Brodie Mackay to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.  The lead doubled on an infield single by Ruan Rose to make it 2-0 in the third.  Later in the inning, Braylon Hughes brought Brodie Mackay home on a single, giving Cleary a 3-0.  Cleary would leave no doubt in the game in the fourth, as they would score nine runs in the inning.  Austin Vincent would score on an error after a Matt Torresan single.  Two batters later, Brodie Mackay singled, scoring another run for the Cougars.  With the bases loaded, Ryan Rose drew a walk, followed by a wild pitch that scored Landon Kempainen.  Austin Vincent and Brendan Seman would hit RBI singles, and the final run of the inning would come off a throwing error, giving Cleary a 12-0 lead.

Cornerstone would narrow the gap in the fourth and fifth innings, as they added one run in the fourth, and a trio of runs in the fifth.  Cleary would stop the rally, and added two runs off RBI groundouts from Jake VanderHaar and Conner Boone to give the Cougars a ten run lead.  Ryan Lieng then went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh, giving Cleary a 14-4 win, and their second tournament win in as many days.  

Hector Montilla threw 3 innings of shutot baseball, and Parker Davis and Ryan Lieng combined to finish the game.

Brodie Mackay went 3/4 with 3 runs scored, and Landon Kempainen, Ryan Rose, and Braylon Hughes had 2hits each to lead the Cougars.

Cleary advances in the winner's bracket, where the 4-seed Cougars will take on the 3-seed Madonna Crusaders with a berth in Sunday's championship game on the line.  First pitch at the Meijer Sports Complex will be at 2:00 PM.