Brookhaven Academy senior Taylor Freeny is playing his senior baseball season on a torn ACL after getting injured in a playoff football game.

On Thursday — his senior night — nobody could tell as Freeny struck out 14 Sylva Bay hitters in 6.2 innings as the Cougars finished off a perfect district season with a 4-0 record.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Freeny said. “We haven’t had that good of luck on some of our senior nights, so it was great to come out with a win on our senior night.”

Cougar head coach Tyler Parvin said Freeny’s performance was nothing new, and that he had seen what kind of competitor Freeny was all year.

“I saw a competitor,” Parvin said. “I have the utmost respect for (Freeny). He’s played on a torn ACL the whole year. He’s a better man than me.”

Freeny sat the Saints down in order in the top of the first inning with two groundouts and a strikeout, but he became dominant throughout the middle of the contest.

He struck out the side in the second and third innings, and struck out two hitters in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

“I really was able to throw my fastball well,” Freeny said. “I was throwing my breaking ball into the strike zone, and that really helped. “

The Cougars’ offense would get held down for the first four innings, but Tucker Watts would get Brookhaven Academy onto the scoreboard with a one-out RBI-single in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“We kind of had a sputter performance at times tonight,” Parvin said. “We didn’t hit our best, but we have another tune-up coming up this weekend for us to get better at.”

The defensive play of the night was from Dawson Zumbro in the top of the sixth inning as he dove behind the second-base bag to take a hit away from a Saint.

The Cougars added on four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning from a RBI-double and a sacrifice fly from O’Neil Burgos. The Cougars added another run on a wild pitch to cap off the scoring for the contest.

Brookhaven Academy pulled Freeny off the mound one out away from a complete game because of the pitch-count rules, and junior Dawson Flowers ended the contest with the Cougars’ 15th strikeout.

Freeny finished the game with 14 strikeouts and only allowing one hit to the Saints.

Brookhaven Academy went undefeated in district play and garnered the No. 1 seed in the district, giving them a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Story by Collin Brister