Baseball: Benet can't get past Nazareth
Benet's baseball team has come within a swing of victory too many times this season.
That frustration continued on Monday.
Behind a 4-run top of the seventh, Nazareth rallied for a 9-7 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory over the Redwings in Lisle.
Two-run singles by Carson Bartels and Kyle Kane helped turn a 5-4 deficit into a 9-5 lead for the Roadrunners (15-3, 5-2). Benet (7-10, 3-4) answered in the bottom of the inning but came up short.
C.J. Birck's two-out RBI single narrowed the gap to 9-7 against Bartels, but the game-ending out came at third base on the play. The Redwings would have had two runners on and the go-ahead run at the plate in No. 3 hitter Alex Tassos.
"We're so close, and we're going to keep working," said Benet coach Scott Lawler. "We're talented but we're making too many mistakes right now to win against the caliber we're playing."
Nazareth spotted starter Richie Kiernicki to leads of 2-0 in the first inning, 3-0 in the third and 4-2 in the fourth. Benet finally broke through for 3 runs and a 5-4 advantage in the fifth inning after Tassos and Dan Sobolewski started the inning with hits.
Josh Tumpane's squeeze bunt and RBI groundouts by Erik Jones and Bobby Ernsting added to the rally.
Benet starter Alex Analaitis coaxed a double-play ball and a flyout to emerge from the sixth inning unscathed. That gave Nazareth just one more shot at rallying, but the Roadrunners made full use of it.
"We've picked up a few losses lately and haven't played like we wanted to," said Bartels, who won in relief after entering the game with one out in the fifth. "We all kind of realized we've to go get this if we don't want to pick up the fourth loss of the season. Kind of beared down there."
Dominic Carmignani went 3-for-4 while Joey Muscolino, Bartels, Shane Gipson and Cesar DelaCerda each had 2 hits for Nazareth, which outhit Benet 14-7.
"Our schedule's tough but it's fun and it's a good test," Lawler said. "But if we're going to make mistakes like that, it's going to be hard to win."
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