Only one thing was asked of Jack Burk on Thursday, and he did it exceptionally well.
The Cherry Creek senior pinch hit for Jake Fox in the seventh inning and parked the second offering from Mullen relief pitcher Bryant Asnicar over the wall in left for a three-run homer.
“My job all season is to be a pinch hitter,” Burk said. “I just try to stay up all game and try to deliver when I get the chance.”
Darin McDonald followed Burk’s shot with his second solo homer of the day to spark a five-run seventh and give the top-ranked Bruins plenty of cushion in a 13-6 Class 5A Centennial League victory at Mullen’s Bill Swift Field.
The Bruins (11-0, 7-0) hit four home runs, including Mike Halpern’s grand slam in the first inning, to win their fourth straight over Mullen.
“We just came up with runs and just kept on coming,” said McDonald, who was 2-for-2 with three walks and scored four runs.
“We saw that they lost (Wednesday to Grandview), so we wanted to jump on them early to see if they’d fall,” he said. “They didn’t really back down, and we just had to keep coming at them.”
The sixth-ranked Mustangs (9-3, 5-2) outhit the Bruins but were charred by six errors.
Sophomore Steve Covello, who is not on the printed roster, went six innings in just his second varsity start and gave up eight runs (three earned) on eight hits. He struck out four and walked eight.
The young lefty had the bases loaded in four innings, but showed enough moxie to draw the praise of coach Tony Schenbeck.
“If we play a lot better defense early in the ballgame, his pitch count doesn’t get up and we don’t have to go get him, and he’s around there for the seventh,” Schenbeck said.
Nick Bryant got the win for the Bruins. The 6-foot-3 righty gave up five runs on 10 hits in six innings.
The Bruins jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning when an error on Mullen third baseman Kirk Ehrhart kept the inning alive and the bases loaded. Halpern brought everyone home with a shot to left.
The Mustangs cut it to 6-3 in the third inning on home runs by Dan Decino and Ryan Thompson and trailed 8-5 after five innings before the disastrous seventh, when they committed four errors.
Cherry Creek 501 200 5 – 13 11 4
Mullen 003 200 1 – 6 12 6
Cherry Creek – Henry lf 5-2-1-0, Mills rf 4-1-0-0, Sowers ss 2-2-0-0, Fox dh 3-1-1-0, McDonald cf 2-4-2-2, Weir 3b 5-1-3-2, Halpern 1b 3-1-1-4, Chuckran 2b 4-0-2-0, Duman c 2-0-0-0, Bryant sp 0-0-0-0, Beserra pr 0-0-0-0, Baker ph 1-0-0-0, Burk ph 1-1-1-3, Ruygrok ph 1-0-0-0, Sokoloski rp 0-0-0-0. Totals 33-13-11-11.
Mullen – Skene rf 4-1-1-0, Thompson ss 4-1-2-3, Thornburg dh 4-0-3-0, Ehrhart 3b 4-1-2-0, Slinkard lf 4-0-1-0, Salvucci cf 3-0-0-1, Nguyen 1b 4-1-1-0, Decino c 3-1-1-1, Belloni 2b 3-1-1-1, Covello sp 0-0-0-0, Asnicar rp 0-0-0-0, Karras rp 0-0-0-0. Totals 33-6-12-6.
E – Weir 2, Halpern, Mills; Decino 2, Ehrhart 2, Skene, Salvucci. LOB – Cherry Creek 10, Mullen 7. SB – Mills, Sowers. 2B – Henry, Weir, Chuckran; Thornburg, Nguyen. HR – Halpern, grand slam in first; McDonald, solo in third; Decino, solo in third; Thompson, one on in third; Burk, two on in seventh; McDonald, solo in seventh. DP – Cherry Creek 1, Mullen 2. GT – 2:14.
Batteries – Bryant, Sokoloski (7) and Duman; Covello, Asnicar (7), Karras (7) and Decino.
HBP – Sowers (by Covello in second); Halpern (by Covello in sixth). PB – Cherry Creek 1, Mullen 2. WP – Karras.
W – Bryant. L – Covello.
