Benjamin Walks Off Pope With Nine In The Seventh

Bucs players celebrate their walk-off win.

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For six innings, it looked like it was just going to be another HSBN Game of the Week sleeper. Pope John Paul was set to break their five-game losing streak, taking an 8-0 lead into the seventh.

Benjamin was headed towards their sixth loss in their last seven games, and had done little all day against Pope starter Danny Meyer.

Then, the Buccaneers youth took over, and what ensued was an offensive explosion that ended with a miraculous, potentially season-changing, nine-run inning, and a 9-8 victory over the Eagles.

“That’s the first game I’ve ever seen like that,” said Benjamin Manager Brian Kaplan. “We’ve been battle tested all year, and this is the first game where the guys realized that they had to fight a little bit more… they put it together there at the end and made it happen. When you go through adversity like we have, as a coaching staff we were just waiting and waiting for them to show some fight. Today they did that, and I think this is a big momentum swing for us going forward.”

So, how does a team that had been struggling at the plate, suddenly score nine runs in one inning? It was a case of contagious hitting throughout the lineup.

Bennett Sousa started the inning with a single to right. After an out, Parker Quinn walked. Mason Doolittle, a freshman and the eventual hero for the Bucs, then singled, plating Benjamin’s first run of the afternoon. Kris Armstrong, an eighth-grader, followed with a walk. When Matt Ellmyer singled and drove in the second run, Pope Manager Pete Graffeo went to his bullpen, summoning ace Josh Parker to close the game.

The Eagles Danny Leyer threw six strong innings.

Baylen Sparks greeted Parker with a single, cutting the lead to 8-3. A Kyle Ruedisili double, followed by a Zach Zientarski single suddenly had the home dugout believing the comeback was possible. Drew Garber, who ran for Zientarski, scored the tying run on a wild pitch.

After Sousa flew out to left, starting pitcher Logan Taplett singled, and Quinn walked, setting the stage for Doolittle. The freshman calmly lifted a single to center, driving in Taplett, and setting off a wild celebration from the Bucs.

“I was very frustrated throughout the game,” said Doolittle. “I ended up making an adjustment in the seventh inning, which turned out to work. In the second at-bat, I was just thinking to myself that I need to do what I do, don’t think about the situation, just try and get a hit, and that’s what I did.”

On the other side of the field, there was shock for an Eagles team that controlled the game from the opening pitch through the sixth inning.

“I don’t have many words for this,” said Graffeo. “I’ve never been in this position. That just seems to be our whole season in a nutshell. We’re just not getting it done. Give Brian and his team all the credit in the world. They are a well coached team, and those kids deserve all kids of credit for battling like that all the way until the end. We didn’t make errors, they just strung a bunch of hits in that last inning.”

Up until the bottom of the seventh, Graffeo had plenty to be proud of from his team. Going through one of their toughest stetches of the season, the Eagles responded both on the mound and at the plate. Stephen Gogreve had two doubles and two runs. Evan Schaffner added two runs, while Cale Brader also had two hits.

Drew Garber scores the tying run in the seventh.

On the mound, Mayer had scattered seven hits through the first six innings, while recording a couple of strikeouts. Luke Cimo came off the bench to perfectly execute a squeez play for the Eagles. Everything was going well until the seventh.

“I saw some positive things,” said Graffeo. “Our offense finally showed some life. So, from that standpoint, I saw some good things. We are just going to have to regroup after this one, and get ourselves ready for districts.”

Benjamin, meanwhile, will attempt to use the game as a springboard for the rest of their season. Two of the keys to continuing this new-found success are the young players, Doolittle (2-for-4, 2 RBIs), and Armstrong (2-for-3, BB), who was recently moved to the top of the lineup by Kaplan.

“I was on deck when Mason had that big hit, and what a feeling,” said Armstrong. “That last inning was great. This gives us some great momentum going forward, and now we just have to keep it going hopefully for the rest of the year and into the playoffs.”

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