Bruecks’ bats blast Battle Mountain, guide Eagle Valley to doubleheader victories

Jesse Meryhew knows the look.

This spring, he watched Lily Brueck line up in a 300-meter hurdle race against a competitor whose seed time suggested she was the favorite. But Meryhew confidently turned to his wife, Amy, and guaranteed a Brueck win.

“I saw a similar look that I see in softball often,” Meryhew, the Devils’ head softball coach said. “She’s the ultimate competitor.”

Brueck won that race and won the day on the diamond on Thursday, carrying Eagle Valley to doubleheader victories over Battle Mountain in Edwards. The senior scored four runs in the Devils 14-4 win in the first contest and went 4-for-4 from the plate with four RBI, a triple and three stolen bases in the team’s 19-4 victory a couple hours later.

“I think our whole team played super well,” Brueck added. “We’ve had some trouble getting good contact the last couple games and I think it all came together today.”

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Brueck had some help from her younger sister, Ava, who drove in four runs in the first game and went 1-for-2 from the plate with a pair of walks and three steals in the second.

“I’m really impressed with how we built up our energy and held it,” Ava Brueck said. The sophomore said she admires her sister’s intense “determination and focus.”

“She’s always ready for anything and always really locked in,” the younger sibling said.

In the first game, the rivals were tied 4-4 after three innings. Battle Mountain coach Allison Brost, who started the program four years ago, said this is the best team she’s worked with. The Huskies started the year 6-2 before a six-game slid, which ended with a 23-0 win over Aspen on Sept. 30.

“It was really cool to see the fire under them when they started getting those wins and seeing their hard work pay off,” Brost said. “But we’ve been playing tougher competition towards the end of the season.”

While Brost said the losing streak has dampened the team’s spirits slightly, the Wisconsin-born coach — who played and coached for Iowa State’s club team — said she’s seen her athletes learn something new every game nonetheless.

“I’m seeing these girls recognizing unique situations in the game and they’re knowing where to go with the ball,” she explained. “Even if we’re not successful with it, I can see that we’re growing mentally.”

Eagle Valley blew the game open with a 10-run fourth inning, ending in Ava Brueck’s double to left field. The sophomore drove in Lauryn Albers and her sister, Lily. The second game shifted to the visitors almost immediately, with the Devils tallying 11 runs in the first.

“This year we’ve had some issues of playing a solid five innings and then letting two go to the wayside,” Meryhew said. “So our focus today was playing hard every inning and seeing what happens — and they got it done.”

Battle Mountain’s Celia Nowakowski struck out four in five innings in the first game and returned to the mound to close out the second, striking out two.

“She’s a rockstar,” Brost said of the senior work horse. “She’s never complaining how much she’s pitching and she’s just trying to help her team out the best way she can.”

Battle Mountain got some offensive help from fellow four-year players Lola Behlendorf and Annika Hurst. Behlendorf went 1-for-3 from the plate and drove in two runs in the first game and Hurst scored a run and drove in a run in the second. Brost praised the pair for having an even keel when “things feel a bit more chaotic.”

“They’re so good at calming their team down and staying positive,” the coach said. “It’s just a huge testament to who they are as people.”

Eagle Valley improved to 7-13 on the year with the wins. After losing nine seniors from last year’s state tournament squad, which produced the program’s best regular season (18-5) in over a decade, Lily Brueck knew this year might be a bit of a rebuilding one. But she’s optimistic about the pipeline.

“We have a really strong freshmen class,” the senior said. “I think with this team it’s been about working on that same level of hard work and getting used to playing with each other.”

Brueck pitched both games, allowing three earned runs and striking out four in five innings in the opener before allowing just two earned runs in the second.

“She has one of the best work ethics I’ve ever seen in my life,” Meryhew said of the three-sport star. “What people don’t see is all the work she puts in outside of practice. Whether it’s track, running, basketball, shooting, softball, hitting – her work ethic is something you want all your players to see and be contagious.”

Battle Mountain (7-10) heads to Meeker on Oct. 6 before closing out the year against Aspen on Oct. 9 and Centaurus on Oct. 11. Eagle Valley returns to the diamond on Oct. 7 at home against Meeker.