Buccaneers Hold On To Beat Eagles 3-2

Bennett Sousa and two other pitchers combine for two runs on five hits while striking out nine.

The Benjamin Buccaneers survived a seventh-inning scare and held on to beat the Calvary Christian Eagles 3-2 in the opening game of the HSBN Preseason Challenge at American Heritage Delray.

Strong pitching and clutch hitting late in the game were the keys to victory for the Buccaneers, who got out to an early lead and managed to hang on despite a final-inning attempt at a comeback by the Eagles.

Sousa, Matt Elymer and DJ Paone combined for only two runs on five hits and nine strikeouts, which is something Buccaneers coach Brian Kaplan hopes to see a lot of out of his pitchers this year.

“It’s what we come to expect out of those guys,” Kaplan said. “We expect our one through four to go out there and hold any team to a run or two and give us an opportunity to come out and get a victory.”

Offensively, the bats got off to a slow start for Benjamin. The Bucs managed only one run in the first six innings that came on a pair of errors in the second inning, and didn’t record their first hit until Sousa’s double in the fourth inning.

Everything changed in the seventh inning. Chad Smith started the inning by drawing a walk. After a sacrifice moved him to second, Cody Rudesili walked and both Kyle Rudesili and Matt Harris hit RBI singles to give Benjamin the two insurance runs that would ultimately end up being the game-winners.

For Kaplan, the key to the preseason is to shake the rust off and get used to playing at full-game speed, something he said is tough to simulate in practice.

“It’s like a live scrimmage but at the pace of a game, which is nice because we can’t recreate that at practice,” Kaplan said. “The way our schedule is we are going to be in one-run games from start to finish, so the more we can have of those and get experience from those, the better off we will be.”

On the Eagles side, five pitchers combined to allow three runs on three hits while striking out ten. Andrew Liberty lead the team with five strikeouts.

Calvary Christian made things interesting in the bottom half of the seventh. After Benjamin put up their two insurance runs in the top half of the inning, the Eagles started to make a comeback. After a quick out,  Liberty drew a walk. Center Fielder Stephen Barnett was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with just one out. Catcher Keith Oren hit an RBI single and Barnett scored on a wild pitch, but the rally came up one run too short.

For Eagles Manager Gregg Mucerino, there were several positives to take out of the game as he gets his team ready for the regular season.

“The pitching depth is encouraging,” Mucerino said. “That really went well for us so I was glad to see that.”

Up next for both schools is another preseason tuneup later in the week. Benjamin faces University School on Wednesday while Calvary Christian returns to the field Thursday when it will face Park Vista.

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