WEIRTON — Brooke’s patience at the plate paid off early, and the Bruins started hitting the ball later against rival Weir.

The Brooke baseball team scored five early runs on just one hit as it built an early lead, and the Bruins pulled away to defeat the Red Riders, 12-3, Tuesday evening at the Weir High Baseball Field.

“We try to do our homework,” Brooke (13-8) head coach Doug Costain said. “We want to try and figure out what we are getting into it and what kind of pitching we will be facing. Their pitcher has struggled to find the strike zone lately. We challenged our kids to be patient and to see pitches, and they did that.”

The Red Riders walked 10 batters in the game.

“We were not ready from the get-go,” Weir (6-11) head coach Dave Cowden said. “We gave them too many gifts. We had too many walks. We were down 5-1, and we were outhitting them by four or five.

“You have to throw strikes. We just were not sharp. It is unfortunate because they are a big rival of ours. We just were not ready to play.”

Brooke was the home team on the scoreboard as the game had to be moved from Brooke to Weir.

Henry Anderson picked up the win on the mound for the Bruins. Anderson struck out 10 and walked three in six innings of work.

“He did a great job,” Costain said. “He filled up the strike zone. He let them hit it, and we were able to field it. He’s going to Division 2 Shephard College, and he is going to be a real asset to their program like he is to ours. He did a nice job.”

Gino Provenzano came on to pitch the seventh. He struck out one and walked one.

Aleks Zanieski took the loss for Weir. He struck out one and walked five in 1/3 of an inning of work. He was replaced with one in the first by Evan Kaczmarek. Kaczmarek pitched the 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked five. Nick DeMatteis pitched the final inning. He did not record a strikeout or a walk.

The visitors outhit the hosts, 10-6. The boys from Brooke County collected six extra-base hits in the win, while the boys from Hancock County tallied one.

Individually, Andrew Murdock collected a double, two triples and an RBI to set the table for the Bruins. Also, Aiden Provenzano added a single, a double and three RBI, Anderson delivered a single, a double and an RBI and Zac O’Mery recorded a triple and an RBI. Finally, Ty Sperringer and Parker McMahon each produced a double and an RBI.

For Weir, Cayden Braswell tallied a single, a double and an RBI, Zanieski singled and had an RBI and Kaczmarek collected two singles. Also, Lucas McAllister recorded a base hit.

The Red-and-Black took the early lead on an RBI single by Zanieski in the top of the first to make the score 1-0, however, the lead did not last long.

Trailing by a run in the home half of the inning, the Green-and-Gold plated five runs to take a 5-1 lead.

“We got some hits, but we didn’t get any big hits,” Cowden said. “We had a lot of runners on base early, but we could not get the big hit and get them in.

“We scored a run in the first, and then we had the five walks.”

The Red Riders answered right back with a run in the second to make it a 5-2 ballgame, but the boys in white countered with two more runs in the third to increase their advantage to 7-2. Weir scored another run in the fourth, but Brooke came right back with two in the bottom of the inning and three more in the fifth to extend their advantage to 12-3.

Brooke had a chance to end the game in the fifth, however, a flyout to center ended the inning.

“We started to hit the ball, and we started to get timely hits,” Costain said. “Hitting is good, but timely hitting is better. We had some base running blunders, but we were able to overcome those.”

The win enabled the Bruins to sweep the season series from the Red Riders. Brooke rallied to defeat Weir, 7-5, March 25 at Weir.

Brooke entered the game coming off a 5-1 loss to Morgantown in an OVAC Class 5A Tournament Semifinal Monday on the road.

“We did a nice job of bouncing back,” Costain said. “We did not leave Morgantown with our tail between our legs. We battled. We gave them a couple of early runs. Really, it was a 2-1 ballgame. We are going to build off that. We are trying to build a program. A sign of a good team is the ability to come back and win your next game.”

Brooke is scheduled to play Big Red at 5 p.m. today at Bowman Field in Weirton.

Weir is slated to play Beaver Local at 5 p.m. today at home.

Brooke 12, Weir 3

Weir 110 100 0 – 3 6 1

Brooke 502 230 X – 12 10 0

WEIR (6-11): Zanieski LP (1/3IP, 1K, 5BB), Kaczmarek (4 2/3IP, 5K, 5BB), DiMatteis (1IP, 0K, 0BB) and Williamson. Braswell S, D, RBI; McAllister S; Zanieski S, RBI; Kaczmarek 2S.

BROOKE (13-8): Anderson WP (6IP, 10K, 3BB), G. Provenzano (1IP, 1K, 1BB) and A. Provenzano. Murdock D, 2T, RBI; O’Mery T, RBI; Moore RBI; Anderson S, D, RBI; A. Provenzano S, D, 3RBI; Sperringer D, RBI; McMahon D, RBI.