Sousa Stifles The Hot Bats of Palm Beach Gardens In Benjamin’s Win

Sousa was 2-for-3 at the plate.

The game of baseball often can be confused for a roller coaster. The up-and-down streaks and twist and turns of a full season can make the strong grow weary. For a team like Palm Beach Gardens, the tide has moved in the right direction as it strung together nine wins in a row.

But Thursday afternoon, the Gators had the daunting task of facing one of Palm Beach County’s best in Benjamin’s Bennett Sousa.

“Sousa is tough pitcher. He deserves to be a number one guy,” Gators coach Joe Russo. “We face tough pitching all the time in our district. Every time we come out, we see everyone’s number one, so we have to be ready.”

In this battle between two of Palm Beach’s best, the Buccaneers prevailed 4-2 behind the strong performance of Sousa, who went five innings and allowed zero earned runs while striking out six.

Things started off well for the Buccaneers in the bottom of the second inning when Sousa laced a ball up the middle to bring in Jon Pavlov. The RBI single gave the Buccaneers their first lead of the game, but the lead did not last as the Gators came out chomping in the next frame.

In the top of the third, Nick Horvath and Nick Gallo singled to start the frame. With two runners on, Benjamin made a crucial error to load the bases. The Gators took advantage, scoring twice, once on a bases-loaded walk and the other on a wild pitch. It was a big frame for the Gators as they had not mustered anything against the tough left-hander.

Faced with their first deficit of the game, the Buccaneers answered back with two runs in the bottom of the third. Back-to-back doubles by Matt Harris and D.J. Paone tied it at 2, and Christian Burger singled in Paone to give the Buccaneers the 3-2 lead. The Buccaneers added another one in the fourth on an RBI single by Kody Puedisili. The run gave Sousa a two-run cushion, and he did not look back from there.

“It was a huge win for us. We knew they were going good and they were going to be tough,” Sousa said. “I try to set up my fastball so I can utilize my curve ball. If I hit my spots with the fastball, I can throw my curve ball in any situation.”

Sousa complemented his overpowering fastball with a knee-buckling curve that sent six batters walking back to the dugout. He then turned the ball over to Harris, who recorded the save. Harris tossed two shutout innings, allowing one runner to reach via the walk.

With another big win under their belts, coach Brian Kaplan is still focused on one thing.

“We have one goal, and that is to win a state title,” Kaplan said. “The energy and momentum we have now, we can’t let go of that for one second because we know it could disappear. We need to take each game like its one step closer to our goal.”

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