York’s bloop hit beats Benet

What York’s baseball team lacked in quantity, it made up for with quality.

And even though Dan Cirone’s 2-run double blooped between three fielders instead of rocketing into the gap, the result was the same: a season-opening win for the Dukes.

The defending West Suburban Silver champions edged Benet 4-2 Wednesday in Elmhurst by being opportunistic and by taking advantage of nearly every Redwings miscue.

Cirone’s two-out fourth-inning bloop fell just inside the right-field line and just out of reach of the converging defense. Mike Ross and Austin Wagner scored on the play to put York ahead to stay at 2-1.

“I felt like everyone contributed,” Cirone said. “Everything started rolling after that second and third inning, and we just snowballed from there.”

Each team committed 3 errors, but Benet’s proved to be much more costly. Two-out errors in the bottom of the fifth and sixth inning led to an unearned run in each frame for York.

Benet (0-2) pulled within 3-2 in the top of the sixth on Pat McInerney’s solo home run, but the Redwings gave the insurance run right back to the Dukes in the bottom of the inning.

“It’s early,” said Benet coach Scott Lawler. “We’ve got to take the nerves and the execution, and we need to keep playing so we get to work on some things. This is the first time some of our guys have taken a ground ball on dirt.”

York starter River Pitlock, who pitched 4 innings to earn the win, and Benet counterpart Chris Whelan made it a scoreless game heading to the fourth inning. Redwings third baseman Joe Boyle doubled and later scored the game’s first run on a passed ball.

Leadoff hitter Ryan Raupach had 2 of Benet’s 5 hits. Six players got hits for York but none more important that Cirone’s in the bottom of the fourth.

Louis Alcaraz pitched 3 innings of relief for York, allowing a run on McInerney’s homer. With the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the seventh, Alcaraz struck out McInerney to end the game.

“It was just good to come out and play some innings and compete,” said York coach Dave Kalal. “And kind of just see where we’re at and see what we need to work on. We had some big hits when we needed them and made some big pitches when we needed to make pitches.”

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