The Osceola Kowboys Win Big Over Cypress Creek

Written by Kristen Scott on February 11th, 2016

Pahlad shuts down the Bear’s offensive line up

The Osceola Kowboys beat Cypress Creek 5-2 on a chilly Wednesday night.

Kowboys starting pitcher Josh Pahlad, kept Cypress Creek’s offense quiet for the first three innings. The first three innings was a pitchers game and it was only to be seen who would make the first mistake. Pahlad did a phenomenal job on the mound shutting down Cypress’s line up.

“The bats were a little slow moving today but pitching and defense is what is going to win ball games and I think we did that tonight,” said Osceola Kowboys manager Scott Birchler. “Pahlad had a great outing his first Varsity start for us. I think our pitching has to do what it did today; minimize the score and give us a chance to let the hitters hit and if we can do that I think we will be okay.”

Osceola’s first run was scored on a Balk on Fernando Vivili, followed by a line drive to right field by Jimmy Clement to score the second run for the Kowboys.

For Vivili’s first time pitching for the Bears after coming to the program in August from the Dominican Republic he did a great job keeping Osceola’s hits minimal. He found trust in his defense that allowed him to throw his pitches.

Bears manager Jeffrey Kovacevich came new to the program in August after moving here from Mississippi, and he has high hopes for his team this season.

“We made some defensive errors early, and we couldn’t find a way to get the big hit,” said Kovacevich, “That’s a very good baseball team over there. They got a couple of hits where we didn’t but we’re pretty optimistic about our season right now.”

William Brandsema made a showing for the Bears on the mound in the top of the sixth inning. Getting two ground balls and one fly ball for a 1-2-3 inning, the Kowboys did not score while Brandsema was pitching.

“I thought I did good tonight, I hit my spots, everything was working good, my slider was breaking,” said Brandsema. Brandsema is a utility player for the Bears. He was the DH for the Bears Wednesday evening, plays outfield, pitches and first base which brings a lot of depth into Cypress Creeks line up.

Scoring three runs in the fourth, and two in the fifth, the seventh inning was a nail biter for the Kowboys. Cypress scored their second run in the bottom of the seventh on a liner to center hit by Jason Figueroa and loaded the bases with a shot to right field by Edward Surinach. However, Armani Diaz finished the game by getting a fly ball to left to end the Bears’ rally.