By Douglas Miles
It was a career night for Brenton Bonebrake.
The Highland junior guessed it had been junior high since he last hit a home run in a baseball game.
Thursday night at Highland High School, he bashed two in a mauling of Lone Tree.
"I just went up there, settled down and hit the perfect pitch," said Bonebrake, who drove in six of Highland's runs in a 15-2, five-inning victory over Lone Tree in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference game. "It was my best game of my life."
Bonebrake's unforgettable night got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first inning. After Lone Tree opened the game with a run in the top of the first inning, the Huskies batted around in the bottom half and by the time Bonebrake came to the plate, the bases were loaded.
After making solid contact and sprinting around first base, Bonebrake was rounding second when he realized he had hit his first grand slam as the crowd, his teammates and his coaches rejoiced.
"They went crazy," Bonebrake said. "That felt so amazing to see everyone, the crowd yelling, coaches yelling, screaming. It was so loud when I hit that. It was so amazing."
The grand slam highlighted a nine-run first frame for the Huskies (2-1), and junior pitcher Connor Grinstead made sure it was more than enough run support as he struck out five batters in five innings, scattered five hits and limited Lone Tree to two runs in 77 pitches.
"I had a game plan to just come in and pound the zone," Grinstead said. "That is what I did. Worked on the off-speed and try and get them with it and I think it worked out pretty well."
Bonebrake capped his night with a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning that provided the game's final margin. It was a good night overall at the plate for the Bonebrake family as sophomore Logan Bonebrake contributed a double and two runs batted in. Junior Trevor McFarland also drove in two runs, while junior Luke Miller posted three hits and scored three runs.
"We just were patient with our at-bats early," Highland Coach Seth Milledge said. "We were taking a pitch, seeing until we got a strike and then we were able to obviously take a couple of walks there.
Then when we were given the opportunity to hit and seize fastballs in the zone, you could tell we were ready to take advantage of them."
Junior Tyler Bell recorded two hits and drove in a run for Lone Tree, who dropped to 0-2.
Highland hosts Mediapolis on Tuesday.
