Benjamin Suffers First Loss Against Coral Springs Christian

Bennett Sousa and John Pavlov confer with coaches in the bottom of the sixth

Bennett Sousa pitched a strong game for host Benjamin on Wednesday, but in duel between lefties, Coral Springs Christian did just enough to give the Bucs their first loss as it won 1-0.

Sousa was solid for Benjamin, striking out 10 and giving up three hits in six innings. Although he surrendered seven walks, he escaped several jams and didn’t allow any runs to score.

“[Coral Springs Christian] did all the fundamental things right to win the ballgame. They threw strikes, hit the ball hard when they needed to, and they moved runners over,” Benjamin coach Brian Kaplan said. “Sousa pitched a great game. He battled every inning, but we didn’t make the adjustments at the plate that we needed to make. Plus we missed a lot of bunts, hit and runs, things like that, and they cost us.”

Dominic DiCaprio started the second for the Crusaders with a single to right off a Sousa fastball. Next up, Ryan Cabreja worked a walk off his fellow pitcher before a bunt single by freshman Pemron Burrows loaded the bases. However, Sousa struck out the next two and forced a harmless fly ball to right to end the inning.

Again in the third, the Crusaders got the lead runner aboard on one of Zach Butler’s three walks. Sousa struck out the following two batters, but Butler stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. With two outs and Butler now on third, Sousa delivered from the wind-up without first checking the runner. Butler took off for home on the offering and arrived at nearly the same time as the pitch. It appeared that Benjamin catcher Brian Dolan did not apply the tag in time and Butler had successfully stolen home. But upon conferring with the first-base umpire, the home-plate umpire declared the player out for interference and nullified what would have been the game’s first run.

The Benjamin Buccaneers put the pressure back on Coral Springs Christian in the bottom of the sixth. Matt Harris drew a walk to start the inning. Next up, left-hander DJ Paone drove a sharp Cabreja slider to opposite field for a single. When Harris successfully stole third, the Buccaneers sat first and third with none out. However, Cabreja buckled down. He delivered one strikeout swinging on a slider in the dirt and caught another Buccaneer looking on a backdoor slider on the outside corner. The following batter, Christian Berger, was able to put the ball in play, but Crusader shortstop Ryan Milner gobbled it up and ended the threat with a good throw to first.

“I was pretty relaxed out there,” Cabreja said. “I wanted to get ahead with fastballs first and then work in the breaking stuff. I tried to set up the hitters outside, then work slider in, really mix it all around.”

Cabreja’s six scoreless innings allowed his team to come to bat in the top of the seventh still knotted at 0-0. Chad Swift came in to pitch the seventh for Benjamin, retiring the first batter on a pop up to first base. Ryan Milner was next up for the Crusaders and hit a sharp grounder that the shortstop couldn’t field cleanly. During the next at-bat, Milner got a good jump on a Chad Swift delivery and stole second. Next, the three hitter Butler stood in. He, too, hit a ground ball to short, and this time it was fielded cleanly but an errant throw to first allowed Milner to score from second base on the play.

Coral Springs Christian took their 1-0 lead to the home half of the last inning. Benjamin showed signs of life in the bottom of the seventh. An infield single by Brian Dolan with none out set the table for the Bucs. However, Dolan took a big secondary lead following a Nick Lamberti pitch, and Butler threw a strike down to first to pick him off. Butler seemed to be in on every pivotal play of the game and the unexpected out really took the wind out of the Buccaneers’ sails. Lamberti retired the next two batters to secure the save and hand Benjamin its first loss of the season.

“We have two more district games this week, and we think [Cabreja] could be one of our top three arms,” Coral Springs Christian head coach Matt Cleveland said. “So we gave him a shot to start today. He did a real good job, and we got a quality win. This year our strength is our pitching and defense, which was real good tonight. But we’ve got to get better at hitting good pitching.”

AJ Alevizos led the Buccaneers in hits, going 2 for 3 with two stolen bases hitting out of the nine spot in the lineup.

The Benjamin Buccaneers will look to avenge their first loss on Friday at Community Christian Academy in Stuart.

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