Trinity Christian Slams Their Way To Title

Byron Murray gets the scoring started with a three-run home run in the first.

Behind a one-hit pitching performance and an offensive outburst that included two first-inning home runs, the Trinity Christian Warriors defeated the Benjamin Buccaneers 11-1 Friday night to win the 2014 Santaluces Slam.

Jerrison Beaumont pitched all five innings, allowing a hit and a run, while striking up five. He even managed to add to his own cause at the plate with a solo home run in the first. The most important thing for Manager Miguel Cuello wasn’t the home run by his pitcher, it was the five innings that he pitched.

“I liked that he went the full five innings,” Cuello said. “Now we have him and Richard {Moesker} 1-2. That will be pretty tough. He started the season throwing one and two innings and we didn’t know how long he was going to go. Now we know what he has and we can throw him out against any team any day.”

Beaumont had offensive support behind him from the get go Friday, as the Warriors scored four runs in the first inning and never looked back. Home runs from Byron Murray and Beaumont got things started. While the bats cooled off in the second and third inning, Trinity Christian put the game away for good in the fourth. The Warriors batted around in the inning, highlighted by Bruce Martin’s bases clearing, three-RBI double. Overall, Martin went 2-for-2 on the night with those three RBI’s and also scored on all three of his plate appearances.

“I felt great at the plate tonight,” Martin said. “I’m seeing the ball like a watermelon and it feels good. I don’t like taking pitches. I like to hack, and they were throwing pitches in my zone.”

The victory for Trinity Christian was a little more special than normal. In addition to the team winning the Santaluces Slam, it was Cuello’s 200th win as Manager at the school. Ending last season four wins shy of 200, Cuello knew that if everything fell into place that his first shot at 200 would be in the title game.

“Last year we were 3-0 in the Slam and the final game got rained out. So I just kept thinking how great would it be to win number 200 and the Slam,” Cuello said. “The kids all knew too. They kept saying ‘coach has 199 we got to do this’. It’s pretty nice, and to do it at one school is even better.”

On the Benjamin side, Chad Swift got the start and went three innings, striking out four. He was also responsible for driving in the Buccaneers only run of the night in the second. Ultimately, having to play four games in five days proved to be too daunting for Manager Brian Kaplan and his squad.

“Without making excuses, we’re a small roster,” Kaplan said. “To play four games in five days we knew we were going to be a little beat up.”

Despite not getting the result he had hoped for, Kaplan knows his team played their hearts out all week against top competition.

“I was proud of the way the guys battled all week,” Kaplan said. “We played two tough teams the last two days and we knew coming in we were going to play a really strong team.”

Kaplan and his Benjamin squad won’t have to wait too long to try and get their revenge. The two squads play again on Tuesday at the same field, and Kaplan knows that the few extra days of rest this time around will make a big difference.

“Allowing our bodies to rest up I think will allow us to be a little sharper come Tuesday,” Kaplan said. “We got a guy pitching that will battle and keep us in the game. We are going to face a good pitcher again Tuesday night and we need to battle better at the plate and have our guy keep us in the game a little bit better.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!