Brophy cools off Hamilton with long ball and pitching, 10-2

May 5, 2012 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


When a pitcher issues six walks, hits a batter and unleashes a handful of wild pitches it can only mean trouble.

Those numbers were attached to Brophy pitcher Dave Graybill  for his four-plus innings of work Saturday night against Hamilton in a winners' bracket semifinal of the Division I state tournament. Trouble, however, applied to Hamilton -- not Graybill.

Graybill's "effectively wild" outing tamed Hamilton's lineup and Graybill and the bottom of Brophy's batting order terrorized the Huskies in a 10-2 romp at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

Brophy (22-8) advances to play Chaparral, a 3-2 winner over Sandra Day O'Connor, in a Thursday battle of D-I unbeatens at 6:30 p.m. at Camelback Ranch Glendale Stadium. Hamilton (23-8) next faces an elimination game against Mesquite on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Muny. Mesquite eliminated Desert Mountain in nine innings, 4-3.

Brophy coach Tom Succow explained how Graybill got away with so many free passes with the "effectively wild" moniker. The explanation rang true for all who saw the game as well as Hamilton coach Mike Woods and his hitters.

"Normally you don't like to see that number of walks," Succow said. "But his ball moves so much........"

Added Woods: "I told that to our team after the game. It was hard for them to get comfortable in there against him. The fact of the matter is, he did a great job."

Combined with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief from Steve Oleksak and Ryan Castellani, Brophy pitching surrendered two hits, seven walks and the two runs (one unearned). Oleksak got only two outs, but they were big ones in the fifth when he entered with runners at the corners and one out.

Oleksak got Hamilton cleanup hitter Cody Bellinger to pop out to second on a 3-1 pitch and came back from 3-0 to strike out Trent Goodrich looking. That protected a 5-2 lead at the time. Castellani issued one walk in two otherwise perfect innings in the sixth and seventh.  The only hits Hamilton got were a third-inning miscommunication double to short center field by Kyle Pechloff and Connor Woods' bunt single in the fifth.

Offensively, Brophy managed eight hits -- seven of them for extra bases. Castellani's single in the third tied the game and touched off a three-run rally capped by Graybill's two-RBI double. Castellani added a two-run homer in the fourth.

Brophy tacked on five runs in the sixth with catcher Connor Messman blasting a two-run homer, Connor Moore an RBI triple and Graybill finishing the scoring with an RBI double. Messman, Castellani and Moore combined to go 5-for-7 with seven runs scored and six RBI in the 7-9 spots in the order. Graybill, who hits leadoff, was 2-for-4 with three RBI.