Benjamin Blanks Rival King’s Academy In District Opener

Matt Harris had a strong performance, mixing his fastball and curve, to lead Benjamin over King’s Academy.

Although it’s just one game, there was a little bit of payback involved when Benjamin defeated rival King’s Academy 4-0 in the District 3A-12 opener for both teams on Monday.

Starter and winning pitcher Matt Harris went six innings and gave up five hits, striking out five and walking three.

“It definitely was the best game of the year because of that team over there (King’s),” said Harris, a senior right-hander who will be attending Elon in North Carolina. “We’ve been waiting for that one for a while. They knocked us out of fall ball, knocked us out of regionals last year, districts last year, (they) won three straight on us last year. It’s a really good feeling.”

Not only did the win take some of the sting away from last season, the Bucs (1-0 in district, 7-1 overall) now control their destiny in the district.

“A district game always has a little more level of importance so the kids wanted it a little bit more,” said Benjamin manager Brian Kaplan.

The Bucs took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Kody Ruedisili led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Bennett Sousa’s deep sac fly to center field.

Kody Ruedisili added a solo homer in the seventh inning in Benjamin’s victory.

Benjamin made it 3-0 in the fourth inning. Brian Dolan was hit by a pitch and Chad Swift sacrificed him to second. He moved to third on Baylen Sparks’ single and scored on Logan Taplett’s bloop RBI single to center. Sparks, who went to third on Taplett’s single, scored on a wild pitch on an 0-2 count.

Ruedisili slammed a homer to left field with one out in the seventh to round out the scoring.

Benjamin manager Brian Kaplan was pleased with Harris’ outing, even though he had to battle out of trouble numerous times.

“It was a very, very gutty performance,” said Kaplan. “We came after the hitters. We were aggressive early, threw the fastball, got it over, got the curve ball working. He works quick, his tempo’s quick, which keeps the defense alert and that’s what we expect.”

Kaplan was pleased with the overall defense and especially Taplett, his freshman second baseman.

King’s Academy starter Jacob Krigbaum lasted four innings against rival Benjamin.

“Defensively, we really did a great job and that picked up the pitching staff,” said Kaplan. “And Logan played out of his mind, he played great defense, everybody did.”

The Lions (0-1, 6-3) put runners in scoring position in every inning but the second and fifth.

“Obviously, it’s very disappointing when we have opportunities,” said King’s manager Doug Magaw. “We got chances to drive runs in on three different occasions and came up empty. It’s all about timing, timely hitting.”

The Lions had runners on second and third with two outs in the third inning when Taplett made a diving stop on John Carpenter’s grounder, bounced up and threw him out on a bang-bang play at first to end the threat.

With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, Taplett started the game-ending double play, finishing with another close play at first.

Losing pitcher Jacob Krigbaum, who didn’t have his best stuff on the mound, was the only King’s batter with two hits. Krigbaum allowed five hits in four innings, striking out four, walking two and hitting one.

“He battled and we felt like he battled well enough for us to stay in the game,” said Magaw. “We had opportunities and didn’t take care of it.”

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