Benet hangs tough in ESCC
Sweeps are tough to come by in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.
Benet's baseball team wasn't about to be caught on the wrong end of one on Wednesday.
The Redwings pulled away late in a 6-2 victory over Notre Dame in Lisle, avenging a loss to the Dons just two days earlier.
After starting the ESCC season by sweeping Carmel, nothing's been easy for Benet (14-7, 5-3) as it stays in the hunt for a conference title. Wednesday's win marked the third straight series split for the Redwings heading into Saturday's doubleheader against Marist.
"We can't afford to get swept," said Benet coach Scott Lawler. "That's why this was a big, big game for us because losing two to these guys would have really put us behind the eight-ball in the conference. I'm really proud our guys came out and won this one."
Notre Dame (13-10, 2-5) tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the sixth inning on Matt Segovia's RBI single, but that helped create a spark for the Redwings, who answered by batting around and scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the inning.
Joe Boyle got the bats going with a leadoff triple. Mike Ryan singled in the go-ahead run and Anthony Rendina added insurance with a 2-run triple. Ryan Raupach's run-scoring infield single provided starting pitcher Mike Powers a comfortable 6-2 lead heading to the seventh.
Despite putting Notre Dame runners on first and second with one out, Powers closed out the complete-game victory to keep Benet within a game in the loss column of Nazareth atop the ESCC standings.
"To get 4 runs that inning was huge," Powers said. "It's awesome to get that kind of support from your offense. We know where we're at, and one of our goals is to win the conference. We needed to come out and make a statement that we're for real."
Boyle gave the Redwings a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an RBI single. An error allowed Benet to take a 2-0 second-inning lead against Notre Dame starter Adnan Sator, who left after 4 innings.
Sam Ferri's third-inning sacrifice fly narrowed the gap to 2-1 for the Dons. Benet had 2 hits in the first inning but didn't get another until exploding for 5 hits in the decisive sixth inning.
"We knew (Powers) was throwing a great game and we wanted to get more than 1 run for him in that last inning," Ryan said. "Once (Boyle) got on base, the smiles came. Everyone wanted to hit after that."
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