TAPinto South Plainfield
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ — St. Joe's has probably seen quite enough of Andrew Bena by now this school year.
Bena, a sophomore left-hander, pitched six strong innings in his varsity debut on the mound to lift South Plainfield to a 6-2 baseball victory over St. Joseph of Metuchen on Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers completed a sweep of the season-opening two-game series over the defending Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament champions, and Bena completed a sweep of sorts of his own over St. Joe's.
Back on Jan. 27, Bena scored a team-high 16 points to lead South Plainfield's boys basketball team to a 55-54 upset victory over St. Joe's — the only game St. Joe's lost to a Middlesex County opponent the entire season.
On Thursday, in the damp chill of early spring, Bena walked the first batter he faced and gave up a first-inning run to the Falcons. But it was smooth sailing from there on in for the tall southpaw, who also slugged a run-scoring double in South Plainfield's five-run second inning.
That inning was highlighted by a three-run double by Aiden McCarthy, who was the winning pitcher in South Plainfield's 11-1 victory at St. Joe's on opening day. McCarthy went 3-for-4 on Thursday to lead the Tigers' nine-hit attack.
After Drew Christian gave St. Joe's a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a two-out RBI double, South Plainfield got that run back in the home half of the first after McCarthy singled and eventually scored on a two-out error. Bena dispatched the Falcons quickly in the top of the second. In fact, after Christian's double, Bena retired 11 in a row.
"Every time I walk someone, it's karma, so (after) I gave up the run, I wasn't gonna let it happen again throughout the whole rest of the game," Bena said. "I came out and made sure to throw a first-pitch strike every time. It kind of got me going. And for my two-seam, I feel like throwing it lighter the first two, and then gunning it the third one was really messing with them, so it's really what I did throughout the whole day. To lefties I was throwing a slider out and change-up in."
"Andrew came up to me after that first inning and was like, 'Coach, you said it. Walks kill'," South Plainfield head coach Scott Gleichenhaus said. "There was a walk, a little bobble there and that's how they got their first run. And from that point on, he was locked in and he did a great job. He looked very comfortable out there for a 15-year-old kid. I mean he pitched out there like he's been there before."
The bottom third of South Plainfield's deep and speedy batting order got the mammoth five-run second inning started. Ed Budzinski lined a single to center and went to third on Alex Pigna's one-out double to right. St. Joe's then issued an intentional walk to the dangerous Dom Massaro, bringing up McCarthy — the No. 2 hitter in the order, nicknamed "The Bull" — with the bases loaded.
They “messed with The Bull, and got the horns," as the South Plainfield bench regularly chants when McCarthy is at bat.
McCarthy smashed a one-strike pitch to deep center field to clear the bases with a three-run double that gave South Plainfield a 4-1 lead.
"I'm pretty sure they did that last year, too," McCarthy, a left-handed hitter, said, "and I know how much Dom wants to hit in that situation, so I just took it personal, and he threw it right down the middle and I took advantage of it. First pitch was a fastball, a little away, I knew I was on time with it, and then he threw it the second time and I was not missing that one."
"Aiden McCarthy, he's The Bull — a three-year varsity starter," Gleichenhaus said. "He just loves the opportunity to be up there in a big spot. I don't know if I would intentionally walk someone to face him knowing what he could do with the bat. He's a professional hitter. He got a hold of one and drove it in that gap to clear the bases. I'm sure Coach McCaffrey was hoping Aiden would roll over on one, and they could turn something to get out of it. He just absolutely smoked that ball. I was like, 'OK, take it personal'."
Chris Loniewski followed with a single to left, then Bena chased the Falcons' starting pitcher with an opposite-field RBI double to left-center. Anthony Cicenia's sacrifice fly delivered the fifth run of the inning.
"It was my first hit of the year. We needed it," Bena said of his double. "It was a two-seam out and I took it the other way in the gap. I've never hit cleanup my whole life. Batting in the four hole, I'm still figuring it out."
St. Joe's reliever Connor Walker pitched 3 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief. Bena struck out two batters in the top of the sixth inning and took a 6-1 lead into the seventh inning before St. Joe's put two runners on with one out. His day concluded with a line of 6 1/3 innings, three hits, two runs, three walks and eight strikeouts. Aiden Kaplan came in to relieve and, after an RBI single and a hit batsman, Kaplan induced a groundball that the Tigers' young new keystone combo of shortstop Cicenia and second baseman Gabe Garcia turned into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
"We have a sophomore shortstop who is playing like he is fearless out there," Gleichenhaus said of Cicenia. "He looks great in practice. Just everything he does is smooth. Anthony Cicenia, he's comfortable out there. And we have a freshman Gabe Garcia at second base who we have all the confidence in the world in because we saw what he could do during the preseason. The time was right to have these guys fill the vacancies left behind up the middle. We have our foundation, we have our core. You gotta be solid up the middle. And Aiden Kaplan came in to close it out and do the job for us on the mound."
ST. JOSEPH (Met.) (0-3) 100 000 1 -- 2 4 2
SOUTH PLAINFIELD (2-0) 150 000 X - 6 9 2
WP-Bena
LP-Baranauskas
The Tigers win 6-2 and sweep the series vs St Joes. Andrew Bena picks up his 1st career var win (6.1 3h 8k ) & knock (rbi 2b). Aiden McCarthy (3-4 2 2b 3rbi 2r) delivered big time w/ a clutch base clearing 2 bagger in the bot 2nd. Teammates Dom Massaro (2-3 r sb) Chris Loniewski (1-4 r) Ed Budzinski 1-3 r) & Alex Pigna (1-2 2b r bb) all provided the necessary run support to get the Tigers in the win column. Congrats to Alex Pigna on getting his 1st career var hit and Aiden Kaplan picking up his 1st career var save- getting a ground ball double play w bases juiced to end the game.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
|
|
St. Joseph (Met.) (0-3) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
|
South Plainfield (2-0) |
1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
9 |
2 |
WP: Andrew Bena LP: Luke Baranauskas
South Plainfield Batting
|
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
1B |
2B |
3B |
HR |
BB |
HBP |
SB |
SF |
ROE |
LOB |
FC |
AVG |
SLG |
|
|
Dom Massaro #6 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.667 |
.667 |
|
Aiden McCarthy #12 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.750 |
1.250 |
|
Chris Loniewski #15 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.250 |
.250 |
|
Andrew Bena #19 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
.667 |
|
Anthony Cicenia #11 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Gabriel Garcia #16 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
Ed Budzinski #3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.333 |
.333 |
|
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
|
|
Alex Pigna #10 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.500 |
1.000 |
|
Totals: |
27 |
6 |
9 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
.333 |
.481 |
South Plainfield Pitching
|
W |
L |
PIT |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
BB |
K |
HB |
PO |
ERA |
|
|
Andrew Bena #19 (WP) |
1 |
0 |
103 |
6.1 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
2.21 |
|
Aidan Kaplan #8 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
0.2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0.00 |
|
Totals: |
1 |
0 |
116 |
7 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
2.00 |
Andy Mendlowitz