WELLSBURG, W.Va. — A strong outing on the mound and a big inning at the plate powered the Brooke baseball team to a big win.

Kaleb Nielsen struck out six without walking a batter in his varsity debut, and the Bruins plated six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning as Brooke pulled away and defeated East Liverpool, 8-0, Friday evening at home.

“It was a good day,” Brooke (7-12-1) head coach Doug Costain said. “We needed this one. I take 100 percent responsibility for our schedule. We have no easy games. We are playing good teams day in and day out. We are playing good teams, tough opponents and bigger schools. We needed this win.

“One thing I am really proud of is our freshman pitcher. Kaleb Nielsen did a great job. He doesn’t talk a lot, but one thing I told him in the bullpen was to throw strikes, and that’s what he did. He pounded the zone.”

Nielsen’s teammates came through for him at the plate as the Bruins scored a run in the first and another in the third to take a 2-0 lead.

“Playing with the lead does help,” Costain said. “A 2-0 lead in high school baseball is not a comfortable lead. You can have one bad inning and things can go south and you’re losing 3-2. We had a lot of quality at-bats today.”

Cooper Klein took the loss for the Potters (2-11). Klein struck out one and walked one in his five innings of work. He was replaced during the home half of the sixth by Noah Kinsey, who pitched the rest of the way. Kinsey did not record a strikeout while walking one batter in his one inning of work.

The Bruins delivered 13 hits on the day — five of which went for extra bases. Eight players recorded at least one hit for the hosts.

Individually, Aiden Provenzano produced a single, a double and two RBI, Zac O’Mery contributed a single, triple and an RBI and Gino Provenzano ended up with a single, a double and an RBI. Also, Ty Sperringer tallied two singles and a double, Dustin Engle delivered a double and two RBI and Kamden Sperringer recorded a single and an RBI. Finally, Aidan Lathem and Blaine Beatty each collected a single.

The Potters tallied three singles in the game. Individually, Donovan Shallcross, Carstin Suznevich and Elliot Finch all finished with one hit.

O’Leary plated Ty Sperringer with a sacrifice fly to right to give the boys in white a 1-0 lead in the first. Kamden Sperringer then singled home Ty Sperringer in the third to extend Brooke’s advantage to 2-0.

Brooke broke the game open in the sixth. Engle doubled home a pair of runners to make the score 4-0, and he took third on the throw home, however, the throw was offline and rolled into left field allowing Engle to race him to increase his team’s advantage to 5-0. Then, Gino Provenzano singled home a run to make it 6-0 before Aiden Provenzano plated a pair of runners with a single to center to make the score, 8-0.

“We finally had that one big inning,” Costain said. “We executed. I challenged the guys to have quality at-bats.”

Nielsen retired the Potters in the seventh to bring the game to an end.

East Liverpool is scheduled to play a doubleheader against rival Beaver Local starting at 11 a.m. Saturday at home.

EL: 000 000 0 –0 3 1

BR:101 006 x — 8 13 0

EAST LIVERPOOL (2-11): Klein LP (5IP, 1K, 1BB), Kinsey (1IP, 0K, 1BB) and Shallcross. Shallcross S; Suznevich S; Fitch S.

BROOKE (7-12-1): Nielsen WP (6K, 0BB) and A. Provenzano. T. Sperringer 2S, D; O’Mery S, T, RBI; G. Provenzano S, D, RBI; K. Sperringer S, RBI; A. Provenzano S, D, 2RBI; Lathem S; Engle D, 2RBI; Beatty S.