Benet hustles past Waubonsie Valley
Benet baseball coach Scott Lawler said his team needs to be at its best in order to succeed.
Thursday morning was a prime example of that. Benet belted out 11 hits and got a complete-game performance from junior hurler Jordan Rajewski as it routed visiting Waubonsie Valley 8-0 in Lisle.
“This is a scrappy team. They are hard-working kids. We have to play well to win and the guys know that. I like this team,” Lawler said.
The Redwings’ winning runs came in the second inning. Andrew Mogni started things off with a single to left, followed by a walk to catcher Kevin Jendra. Ryan Raughpauch was sent in as a courtesy runner of Jendra.
Mogni scored the first run on a fielding error and Raughpauch came home on Billy Tumpane’s sacrifice fly.
Benet (4-2) batted around in the fifth inning and racked up six runs to blow the game open. A two-run single to right by Chris Stout, an RBI single by Joe Boyle and an RBI groundout by Chris Whelan were the key hits.
Stout finished the contest 3-for-4 to lead Benet’s stat sheet.
“I’ve been pretty confident at the plate. Lately, I’ve been getting some outside pitches and I’ve been on the plate a little more,” he said.
Rajewski gave up just four hits, struck out two and set the Waubonsie lineup down in order during three innings.
“I felt nice and loose and kept them (the hitters) off-balance,” he said of his first start of the season and first varsity complete game.
Lawler said Rajewski’s peformance was crucial in what has been a busy spring break week for the Redwings.
“We have a game almost every day this week. He was under 80 pitches and saved our bullpen,” he said. “We stress to make (the opposition) hit it, trust your defense. You get high pitch counts when you try to strike out guys.”
Waubonsie Valley (2-2) went into the game having won 4-2 at Naperville Central on Wednesday. Of the Warriors’ four hits against Benet, three were doubles.
“We hit the ball hard, but the mental breakdowns can’t happen. We allowed a lot of baserunners. We made only two errors, but they opened up innings,” said Warriors coach Dan Fezzuoglio.
Tyler Josupait, Troy Fumagalli and Mitch Stefani all doubled for Waubonsie.