BRODHEAD — Opening Day brought about a lot of smiles as Brodhead-Juda defeated Monticello-Albany 10-0 in six innings in nonconference baseball game March 26.

“We’ve been excited for the last week and a half. We’ve had some really quality practices and we’re just excited to be out here,” Brodhead-Juda coach Aaron Guilbault said. “The guys really showed that they were ready to go.”

Cardinals ace Quinton Kammerer looked every bit the part, tossing four shutout innings while allowing two hits and two walks on 62 pitches. The first hit came to leadoff batter of the game, Josh Dahl, who barely beat out a poor throw on a weak infield hit to third base. The only clean hit came in the in the fourth on a shot up the middle by Monticello-Albany’s Tradyen Foster.

“A lot of it was my catcher — he’s a solid wall out there. My infield behind me was great — without them I couldn’t really have four good innings,” Kammerer said. “I know all the guys and I were really just looking forward to Opening Day. We put in a lot of hard work over the offseason. We all just wanted to be out here — it’s baseball.”

Guilbault said that Kammerer, his lone senior, was poised on the mound.

“He’s our program leader in many ways. He’s our only senior, a captain for us and he just leads by example, which really impresses me every single day that I’m out here with him,” Guilbault said. “He set the tone for us again today, and that’s what we expect him to do all year this year.”

The Cardinals plated four runs in the first inning against Albany pitcher Kollin Klitzke. After striking out Brodhead-Juda leadoff man Chase Harnack, Klitzke then walked three straight batters on 13 pitches. A fielder’s choice to short scored the first run, and then a pair of errors led to three unearned runs.

“I thought Kollin started out a little skittish on the mound, but once he settled in, he did fine,” Monticello-Albany coach Scott Smice said.

Brodhead-Juda scored four unearned runs in the fifth off Andy Eyler to take an 8-0 lead. Marco Bueno reached on an error to lead off the inning, then swiped second and advanced to third on a passed ball. Conner Green then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the run. Cody Malcook then tomahawked a pitch to deep left for a double, and then Harnack reached on a misplayed infield bloop. 

The fifth batter of the inning, Cade Walker, then walked on four straight pitches to load the bases. Andrew Brockwell then lined a single up the middle, driving in two runs, but Walker was caught in a rundown between second and third. Brockwell swiped third during Jake Miller’s at bat, and then scored on a wild pitch. Miller struck out to end the frame.

“We made a conscious decision to be a little more aggressive early in the count and find the fastballs. They started doing that and good things happened,” Guilbault said. “We had jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and that wasn’t necessarily due to anything that we did extremely well. I think we got a little complacent in the middle innings.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Kammerer reached on an error by Eyler at third while Andy Gertsch was on the hill. Payton Johnson was then hit by a pitch and Bueno blooped a hit to center to load the bases with nobody out. Green then hit a frozen rope down the left field line to score the game-ending run.

“Energy — that was the biggest thing for us. Having that energy is contagious. When someone gets on, the next person seems to hop on the trend and keeps things going,” said Kammerer, adding that the win was a big confidence booster for the club. “They’ve worked day in and day out in the offseason. It’s really good to finally see some results.”

Dahl finished the game 2-for-3, while Foster had the Ponies’ only other hit. Monticello-Albany pitched six players — each given one inning. Dahl, Foster and Corbin Kelley all pitched scoreless innings. The Ponies struck out eight collectively while walking five and hitting three batters.

“We put together a game plan of seven of our pitchers we think we’ll see a lot this season. We wanted to see what they could do very early in the year to this point,” Smice said. “Our middle guys — Corbin, Josh, Tradyen — did an outstanding job getting the outs. (Brodhead-Juda) put some hits together and we just didn’t.”

Brockwell reached four times, scored twice and had two steals for the Cardinals, while Green had three RBIs and Walker reached three times. Bueno reached all four times he stepped to the plate — one hit, one walk and twice reached on errors. He also had two steals. Green pitched the final two innings in relief, striking out four and allowing just one hit.

Despite the score, Smice said his players were glad be outside and competing.

“We have been inside pretty much the whole time practice was legal. In fact, yesterday (March 25) was the first day we actually got to get out on our own field. We’re a little behind the times as far as being outside, getting game-speed up to par and this and that,” Smice said. “We were using this nonconference game as a ‘feel-around’ type of game. We’re not disappointed — they scored in three innings and we just didn’t capitalize on opportunities. We’ll catch up.”

Brodhead-Juda was set to travel to Whitewater to open conference play March 28, while the Ponies were scheduled to host New Glarus (0-1) March 30.

“In any sport, you take it one day at a time. You are only as good as your last pitch, your last at bat, your last game. So, we start 0-0 on Thursday at Whitewater,” Guilbault said.