WESTLAKE — Brecksville sophomore Mike Mancuso did not look like a sophomore when he was on the mound at Westlake High School on Monday afternoon.
Mancuso threw just 92 pitches in contrast to the 156 thrown by Westlake. Though his pitch count was low, the strikeout total was not. Mancuso struck out 10, walked only two batters and allowed a pair of base hits in the Bees’ 7-0 victory over the Demons.
The Bees improved to 15-2 and 8-1 in the Southwestern Conference, while Westlake fell to 16-3 and 7-3.
“We had a few chances, but against a team like that, you’ve got to hold them to two or three runs,” Westlake coach Jeff Short said. “I don’t know if you’re going to score more than two or three off (Mancuso), especially when he’s on. He was on today.
“We’re not that bad offensively. Today was just a day where he had his game and he was tough to hit.”
“That was our goal from the beginning, putting up a strong performance for seven complete innings,” said Brecksville coach John Mutch. “We certainly made our mistakes, but in the three phases of the game, I thought we did a pretty solid job.”
Mancuso was in the most trouble in the bottom of the first inning. After a groundout, Stephen James drew a walk and Will Shortreed singled to right field. With two runners on and one out, Mancuso began to dominate.
He struck out the last two hitters in the first and six of the next seven. Between Shortreed’s single and Matt Kelley’s walk in the bottom of the fifth, Mancuso retired 12 consecutive.
“He was very good,” Short said. “I told John (Mutch) after the game our strength all year has been offense. We just hit the ball. There’s no doubt that’s the best pitcher we’ve faced. He was probably bringing it at least the high 80s. Then, he had his curveball working at the end.”
“This is a tough lineup,” said Mutch. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Mike. Westlake is always a good-hitting team. I think he had the right mix in his pitches and stayed mentally focused for seven innings. He did a nice job.”
Though they weren’t very busy on defense in the early innings thanks to Mancuso’s strikeouts, the Bees were strong at the plate. They scored four runs in the second inning after sending nine hitters to the plate.
Andrew Pruchinski and Mancuso started the inning with back-to-back singles, with Pruchinski scoring on a groundout. A walk to Matt Galland gave Brecksville a chance for the big inning. Drew Bandsuh took a 1-0 pitch to the gap in left-center and motored his way to second base with two runs batted in.
The Bees added runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings. In the third and fifth, Brecksville brought runners across without registering a hit.
Pruchinski and Mancuso led off the third with walks. Steve Hagen hit a groundball up the first-base line on what looked like a routine play. Even though Westlake pitcher Nick DeMoss fielded the ball cleanly and had a play at first, Hagen avoided the tag long enough to allow Pruchinski to score.
 Hagen walked in the fifth and was moved into scoring position by a sacrifice bunt. He came around to score on a throwing error.
Despite the seven-run win, the final score could have been much different. Brecksville left 10 runners on base. With the bases loaded and one out in the third, Westlake called on Shortreed to relieve DeMoss and work out of a jam.
Shortreed struck out the final two hitters of the inning.
“I wish we would have gotten more runs there,” Mutch said. “Our pitcher was throwing pretty well today, but you never know. We’ll move on from here and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
“Nick has been our (No. 1) for three years in a row,” said Short. “That’s why we went with him. He didn’t have it today. Will is our closer, but he’s probably one of our better pitchers. We felt he could keep us in the game, which he did.”
Contact Matt Florjancic at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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