Benet drops fourth straight in ESCC
May is only eight days old but it's already been a long month for Benet's baseball team.
The Redwings dropped their fourth straight game - all in the East Suburban Catholic Conference - with Thursday's 5-3 loss to Joliet Catholic in Lisle.
Benet (13-9, 6-4) didn't go down without a fight, bringing the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning. Still, the recent slide has put a dent in the Redwings' ESCC title hopes.
Catching the Hilltoppers (18-4, 10-0) just became a lot more difficult.
"It's been a mix of things," said Benet coach Jeff Bonebrake. "We've been bad in all three phases at times. Today we just weren't able to scratch anything through offensively."
Rained out Wednesday after five batters, Joliet Catholic picked up Thursday's continuation with a 1-0 lead. The Hilltoppers added a second run on Kevin Hulbert's infield single against John Boyle (5-3). The score remained 2-0 until the seventh.
Boyle pitched well in the middle innings, facing the minimum batters in the fourth, fifth and sixth. Hilltoppers designated hitter A.J. Plese finally gave his team some insurance by blasting a 3-run homer with two outs in the seventh.
Leading 5-0 at that point, the outcome seemed secure with junior pitcher Kendall Paluch (6-2) throwing a shutout. That all changed in the bottom half of the inning.
"It's always good to have a couple of extra runs," Plese said. "We're always looking to pounce on anybody."
Benet's Mike Cunningham and Kyle Vesevick reached base to start the bottom of the seventh, setting up Alex Staehely's towering 3-run homer that narrowed the gap to 5-3.
Benet put two more runners on base and moved them into scoring position with two outs, but Hilltoppers reliever Steve Cservenyak got the final out to preserve the win.
"We threatened and we couldn't get that big hit," Bonebrake said. "That was the difference. We just had a lot of poor at bats."
BOX SCORE
Joliet Catholic 5, Benet 3
Joliet Catholic 200 000 3 -5-6-1
Benet 000 000 3 -3-8-3
2B: B: Cunningham 2; HR: JC: Plese. B: Staehely
WP: Paluch (6-2) LP: Boyle (5-3) SV: Cservenyak (1).