The key to any baseball team is pitching, and that is what Brannan has been looking at early in the season. Against Sussex Academy however, Brannan took it to a new level. The plan from the start was to get his young arms an inning each. So, starting with the first inning, it was pretty much one and done as the innings passed by. Senior Alex Mergner would start the game, with a clean opening frame and a pair of strikeouts. Eighth grader Joshua Miller pitched a clean second, followed by freshman John Hudson who did not allow any runs either.
Sussex Academy would respond in the bottom of the frame, as Wyatt Skinner bounced a two-run dinger off the scoreboard in left field. The well-hit ball seemed to embolden the Seahawks as they kept a careful eye on the strike zone and put together a threatening rally. Before Milford knew what was happening, the bases were loaded and there was only one out. That was when Brannan turned to sophomore righthander Nick Hurd. The underclassman responded by pitching out of the jam and going on to shut down the Seahawks in the fifth inning as well. “Nick really brings a different element to the game, with the angle of his delivery. It tends to keep hitters a little off stride. More importantly, that was a young pitcher in a big spot, that’s how guys are going to earn innings this year,” Brannan stated.
In the season opener against Cape Henlopen, Milford was never really in the game as it came out on the short end of a 13-2 score. The Buccaneers would right the ship however, as they hosted Smyrna on Friday. Even though they fell into an early four-run hole to start the game, the pitching and defense settled down to allow Milford to slowly work its way back into the game. With Milford working deep into counts, it not only scored runs, but got the pitch count up on the Eagles hurlers. “Once we got deeper into their bullpen, we got more comfortable and knew it was just a matter of time,” Brannan said. Milford scored a combined 12 runs in the fourth, fifth and six innings to secure the 14-8 victory.
Up next for Milford will be a home tilt against Sussex Central, followed by the annual “Battle of The Bat” at Lake Forest Friday afternoon “We have some really good teams coming up this week and we are going to have to up our game if we hope to compete,” Brannan concluded.
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