Blazing Bucsa, Carmel turn up the heat
Carmel coach Joe May said that Blake Bucsa was “on fire” with his hitting this year.
Bucsa added some heat to the Corsairs’ lineup again Monday in Arlington Heights, and Carmel followed his lead by banging out a season-high 13 hits in a 13-2 romp over St. Viator in East Suburban Catholic Conference play.
“We had a great approach today,” said Bucsa, who was 4-for-4 with an RBI and 3 runs scored. “Coach was talking about lessening the strikeouts and not swinging first pitch off-speed, and looking for a fastball to hit. And we did that today.
“I was trying to get ahead of the count. I had a pretty good approach today as well.”
St. Viator (12-9, 1-4) was the one that had an early good approach.
The Lions’ Tim McElroy fanned two in the top of the first and the Lions tallied twice in their half of the inning. Andrew Ferrante tripled home Brian Wilhite, who had singled. Ferrante then scored on a Joe Rossi’s groundout.
But Carmel’s Matt Ryan shut the door on the Lions after that, allowing just 2 more hits. The junior struck out six and walked one as he improved to 4-1.
“I came out a little slow,” Ryan said. “But it was team win. We played defense and put the ball in play.”
While Ryan was keeping the Lions at bay, the Corsairs got their offense rolling, as Carmel batted around twice.
“One of the things we talked about is answering when the other team scores,” May said. “And we were able to do that in the top of the second.”
Bucsa singled in the second and came around to score on the first of four St. Viator errors to close to 2-1.
Carmel then took the lead for good. The Corsairs loaded the bases and scored three times thanks to another St. Viator error, a RBI single by Bucsa and the inability of the Lions to turn a double-play on two different occasions that would have gotten them out of a jam.
“This is what happens when we don’t get leadership at the top,” St. Viator coach Mike Manno said. “And it starts with me. We are just not getting things done.”
Carmel made it 6-1 in the fourth when Sean Brennan singled and later scored on a groundout.
The Corsairs blew the game open in the fifth. After loading the bases thanks to hits by Bucsa and Mike Stahoviac, Carmel pushed over runs on a walk to Brian Brennan (2-for-3), and when Tyler Murphy (2-for-4) was hit by a pitch. Duncan Amrein then cleared the bases with a triple to make it 10-2.
Carmel added three more runs in the sixth as Stahoviak (2-for-3) doubled home Bucsa. Stahoviak and Josh Walinski each scored on Brian Brennan’s double.
“This was our best offensive output of the year,” May said. “We had a lot of guys contribute. We just battled out there today.”