Sunday’s matinee at Whitehall’s baseball field featured a grand performance by senior Alex Bruneio who stole the show as the Zephyrs notched their first win of the season.

Bruneio belted a towering home run and a solid single to right, his dinger knocking in two runs in a four-run fourth inning that broke the game open. He also dominated from the mound, striking out 10 batters as the Zephs won 9-2 over visiting Crestwood High School.

Bruneio also got the win, allowing just two runs over his five innings of work. The southpaw stayed ahead of the Crestwood hitters all day. He was ahead of 14 of the 24 batters he faced. His ability to throw strikes was the key to his success on Sunday.

“When you get ahead, it’s just a huge advantage,” said Bruneio.

In his second start of the season, Bruneio settled down after a rough first inning which saw the Comets score two runs to take the lead. From that point, he tossed up goose eggs until he was relieved in the fifth by Eric Smith.

Bruneio said that when the reverse happens, and a batter knows when a pitcher gets behind and has “to groove one,” than that works to the hitter’s advantage. He wanted to make sure he stayed on top of his pitch count on each batter.

Trailing by two, Whitehall responded with five runs in their half of the frame. Zach Gilbert got the Zephs on the board with a triple for two RBIs, tying the score. Jacob Lisicky provided the go-ahead run with a hard shot through the left side. Andrew Snyder followed with a big blow, a deep drive to right that scored two runs.

Manager Shaun O’Boyle liked the way his team responded in their half of the first.

“It’s been kind of an Achilles heel for us when we get the first two outs, we’ve been giving up runs, and we did it again in the first inning,” said O’Boyle. “So it was nice to come back and score five after that. We needed to do that.”

The Zephyrs have collected 26 hits in their first three games. O’Boyle said that hitting hasn’t been an issue so far this season, and that’s a good sign. However, too many mental mistakes against the Vikings last Thursday at Sammy ballet Stadium led to their downfall. He said that those were corrected in Sunday’s win over Crestwood.

O’Boyle said that Bruneio’s ability to control three different pitches and throw them for strikes at any time in the count, kept Crestwood off balance most of the game.

“Alex did a great job with that today,” said O’Boyle.

Bruneio’s homer was a majestic shot that soared over the right field fence. It may not have been his hardest hit ball on the day, however; he also crushed a pitch in his first at-bat, an opposite field shot that was snagged by the left fielder. In their loss against Allentown Central Catholic, he had a pair of doubles and an RBI. The senior, who also had two hits against North Hills in the opener, is off to a torrid start at the plate.

Crestwood mounted a rally in the sixth inning, loading the bases on a pair of walks and an infield chopper, but Smith got out of the jam with a strikeout to end the threat.

O’Boyle said that he foresees Smith getting a lot of quality innings this year and was pleased with how he stayed poised and kept the Comets off the scoreboard.

“That was good to see,” said O’Boyle. “He was probably a little nervous in the beginning but he pulled through and finished strong.”