The Wilson Bruins ran into a buzz saw on Thursday at Capistrano Valley.  Pitcher Tyler Matzek threw four no-hit innings and Charles Pfirrmann hit a second-inning grand slam as the Cougars (22-6) took an early lead and cruised to an 8-4 victory.

Matzek worked little with the large lead, striking out six on 39 pitches, and improved his record to 10-1 on the season.  Cougars senior Nolan Clark hit a two-run homer in the sixth to seal the victory.

Chris Hubbard, Kyle Ritter and J.T. Mazalewski pitched for the Bruins and Tanner Perkins led the way with an RBI double in the sixth.

“We got beat by the better team tonight.  I think they have a good chance to win it all,” said Wilson coach Andy Hall.  “But we fought hard.  I’m very proud of this group… with everything we had to go through… it’s pretty good to finish ten games over .500 and make the bracket.”

Coming off back-to-back appearances in the CIF Championship, and despite loosing some huge names to graduation over the last three years, the Bruins of ’09 got better as the season went on, finishing 21-11.

“We called a meeting when we were 2-2, but no one was hitting the panic button,” said Hall.  “We told them we knew we were better than we had played so far… if we walked out of here at .500, no one would be pleased.  Because of the character of the kids, they made it happen.”

As to where the Bruin program is headed, “the young guys really came along this year.”  And to the start of American Legion summer baseball coming up, “yeah, we’ll take Tuesday off, then get right back to it on Wednesday.”