The Bear River Bruins really tied off loose ends in the Marysville tournament over the weekend.
The Bruins played Sutter High School, Oroville High School, Paradise High School, and Yuba City High School to place 6th out of 8 teams. They tied their first two games on Saturday, and came back on Sunday to lose their second two games: 5-7 to Paradise High School, and 4-7 to Yuba City High School.
Though the games were less than great, Head Baseball Coach Eric Van Patten still commented on how he was proud of the team and their performance.
“(I’m) content on some individuals who competed well, hopeful that our fall ball fellas will compete for all the game,” Coach Van Patten said. “(I feel) like we lost sight of that a few times.”
However, Coach Van Patten said that he thought Bear River could have done better in the tournament.
“I know we have room for growth,” he said. “However, I think BR could have put up better stats.”
Regarding the team’s strengths, Coach Van Patten said that he feels the biggest one they have right now is “the players making a commitment to keep improving.” He said the team’s weaknesses are that they need to “(learn) how to finish a game we started strongly off in.”
Senior Pitcher Trevor Hennig talked about how the games started off on a high point.
“We started off every game solid, then we would start to get sloppy,” he said.
Hennig also said the team started to lose their drive toward the end of the tournament.
“I was proud of them during the first half of the games, then when we started falling apart,” Hennig said. “We got very snappy and annoyed with each other.”
Senior Third Baseman Jared Van Vlack agrees with Hennig’s point of view. He said he felt the team needs to come together more.
“I think the team needs to focus more on coming together as a team and lifting each other up as opposed to putting others down,” he said.
Freshman Third Baseman Cole Winters said the team gets down on themselves too easily.
“(We need to stop) letting little mistakes get to us,” Winters said. “Just not let those little mistakes get to us and not dwell on them.”
