Eaton – Only in Eaton could a kid named Bo McLavey get away with wearing red on St. Patrick’s Day.
The junior, who was sporting a green “Fight Me, I’m Irish” T-shirt under his baseball uniform Saturday, had one of the many Eaton bats that lit up the visiting Brush Beetdiggers 11-1.
“It’s not ironic Bo played the way he did. I predicted it,” said legendary Eaton coach Jim Danley, who not only collected his 600th victory last weekend against Fossil Ridge but notched win No. 100 on the Reds’ 10-year-old home field.
“If he’s not going to have a great day on St. Patrick’s Day, then I don’t know who is,” Danley said of McLavey.
Eaton (2-0) jumped all over first- time Beetdiggers starter Jake Mullens. After retiring Reds leadoff hitter Bryce Ruff, Mullens surrendered hits to six of the next seven batters, including a double off the base of the left-field wall by McLavey that drove in two runs.
Mullens’ day on the mound was finished just four batters into the second inning, when Drew Smith crushed a first-pitch fastball more than 420 feet off the roof of a house across the street.
“We’re taught to look for fastballs, and I got one I liked and got a good piece of the bat on it,” said Smith, a starter on the Reds’ Class 3A champ- ionship basketball team.
Said Brush coach Mark Muñiz, whose team dropped to 2-2: “We put (Mullens) in these type of situations, because in about a month or so, he has to have that tough-game experience. We just can’t expect him to do that all of the sudden.”
The Nos. 2-3-4 hitters – Tyler Wallace, Smith and Bennett Pickar – in the Reds’ lineup were a combined 8- for-10, scored six runs and drove in six in support of junior Kyle Ottoson.
It was Wallace’s double to the left- center field gap that ended the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Ottoson, a left-hander who also won Eaton’s opener, allowed just three hits and struck out seven with his nasty knuckle-curve.
Brush’s only run came home on one of three Ottoson wild pitches.
Brush 001 00 – 1 3 4
Eaton 430 22 – 11 14 0
Brush – Melendez cf 2-0-0-0, Bass 2b 2-0-0-0, Maltos ss 2-0-0-0, Alexander 3b 2-0-0-0, Gonzales lf 2-0-1-0, Guzman 1b 0-0-0-0, Sanchez dh-p 2-0-0-0, Roy Grauberger c 2-1-1-0, Ric. Grauberger rf 2-0-1-0, Mullens p-1b 2-0-0-0. Totals 18-1-3-0.
Eaton – Ruff rf 3-1-1-0, Wallace 3b 4-3-3-3, Smith 1b 3-3-3-2, Pickar c 3-0-2-1, C. Anderson cf 0-1-0-0, Ottoson p 3-0-0-1, Ball lf 2-1-1-1, McLavey ss 3-0-2-2, Monfort 2b 3-1-1-0, Hall cf 0-0-0-0, Geisick dh 2-1-1-0. Totals 26-11-14-10.
E – Sanchez, Alexander, Maltos (2). LOB – Brush 2; Eaton 5. 2B – McLavey, Wallace. HR – Smith, one on in second. SB – Geisick. CS – Maltos.
Batteries – Mullens, Sanchez (2) and Roy Grauberger; Ottoson and Pickar. W – Ottoson (2-0). L – Mullens (1-1). WP – Sanchez; Ottoson 3. T – 1:28.
Jon E. Yunt can be reached at 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com.
