Baseball: Benet winning streak in jeopardy
Benet's baseball team has some time to plot a rally against Marist.
Monday's East Suburban Catholic Conference game in Lisle was suspended in the top of the seventh inning due to rain, and the Redwings have some work to do. They trail 7-2 and Marist has the bases loaded with one out.
If the Redwings (10-14, 5-7) can escape the jam without further damage, they'll have one more chance to come back. They'll resume the game Wednesday at Marist (14-9, 7-4), with the regularly scheduled game in Chicago immediately following.
"We obviously want to finish this game strong, and we're just going to have to change our mindset," said Redwings third baseman Alex Tassos. "We just need to get our minds right and try to get some runs on them."
Benet's riding a three-game winning streak - for now - but the streak's in definite jeopardy after Marist broke open the game with 3 runs in the top of the seventh. Before the Redwings can try to rally, they need to get out of the bases-loaded jam.
The Redwings are hoping a couple days away will change the tide on Wednesday.
"We'll attack the inning and go from there," said Benet coach Scott Lawler. "We'll play it like we're in a 1-run game."
Benet struggled defensively on Monday, and it hurt them immediately when Marist scored 2 runs on a pair of first-inning errors. Tassos singled home a run in the bottom of the inning, but Max Malley and Jake Powers each doubled in a run to extend Marist's lead to 4-1 in the top of the sixth.
An unearned run scored by Dan Sobolewski narrowed the gap to 4-2 for Benet in the bottom of the sixth before Marist took advantage of more defensive miscues to add 3 runs in the seventh. Jack Snyder pitched 6 strong innings for the RedHawks, but they'll need to decide who finishes the game on Wednesday.
C.J. Birck pitched 5-plus innings in his first start on the mound for the Redwings before giving way to three relievers.
"We didn't help him out at times, but give him a lot of credit - he battled," Lawler said. "We weren't very clean in a couple of innings. It could have been the conditions, but you never know. You just need to clean it up."
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