Benjamin Downs King’s Academy 6-1 in District Clash

Brian Dolan heads to bat in the bottom of the third.

The Benjamin Buccaneers pitched well, hit well and fielded well in their District 3A-12 matchup against King’s Academy on Thursday. That’s usually a good recipe for success, as was the case this time in a 6-1 win for Benjamin.

“We played, I believe, our first game where all three facets worked,” Benjamin coach Brian Kaplan reflected after the game. “The pitchers threw strikes, the defense made plays when they needed to, and the hitters executed. We’ve had big hitting games but this was the first that we’ve fired on all three cylinders.”

The lefty starter for Benjamin was sophomore Bennett Sousa, who again turned in a stellar performance. Sousa went five and two-thirds innings, striking out six and giving up no runs on three hits. His fastball was clocked at 90-plus mph, and he also mixed in a curve ball effectively.

Senior Matt Pisciottano made the start for King’s Academy and was perfect through two and two-thirds innings before walking the number nine hitter for Benjamin, AJ Alevizios. Next up, Kody Ruedisili grounded one to the shortstop, but the throw to first base was wide, allowing Alevizios to advance to third and putting Ruedisili aboard. Matt Harris singled to center, driving in the game’s first run for the Buccaneers.

A DJ Paone walk loaded the bases and set the table for Jon Pavlov, still with two outs. Pavlov struck out looking his first time at bat on three pitches and quickly fell down 0-2 again in the third inning.

“He got me backwards with the breaking pitches, but I knew he was going to come back with the fastball,” Pavlov said after the game.

Pisciottano did throw a fastball on the 0-2 offering and Pavlov drove the outside heater to the right-field gap for a two-run single. Christian Berger followed with a single, plating one more before he was thrown out trying to take second base on the play. All told, the home team Buccaneers scored four to take a 4-0 lead into the top of the fourth inning. All four runs were unearned for Pisciottano.

The Lions got the lead runner of the fourth on base via a John Monte walk. A pop-up to the catcher gave the Lions one out. Next, a lineout to the second baseman led to a double play when Monte could not get back to first quick enough. The double play ended the inning.

Benjamin added one run in the bottom of the fourth and the sixth, respectively, to extend the lead to 6-0. The Lions made some noise in the seventh with a Dominic Mercurio single, a Myles Basore grounder to third that led to an error, and another single from Thomas Palmer. Palmer’s single drove in a run to make it 6-1, but it would not be enough as the following two batters flew out to end the game.

King’s Academy fell to 5-5 overall with the loss, and to 2-1 in district play. Three of those losses came from teams in the top 10 of HSBN Palm Beach Power Rankings, but that’s no consolation to coach Doug Magaw.

“Getting big base hits and getting RBI is the key to winning baseball games,” he said. “Not taking anything away from Bennett Sousa — he’s a heck of a pitcher, and we knew that coming in — but at some point, someone’s going to have to drive in runs for us.”

The Lions left six runners on base, including two in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

Benjamin will next play in the Sarasota Classic, a 24-team tournament taking place over Spring Break. The Lions will be back in action on Monday versus Glades Day.

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