The Benedictine baseball team has been playing at an elite level all season as the Cadets reached the Class 4A state quarterfinals under third-year coach Jason Pascual, their deepest run since BC reached the state semifinals in 2022.
The Cadets were at the top of their game once again on Wednesday as they hosted Cambridge in a double header to start the best-of-three series. The BC bats were on fire in the first game as they hit five homers to back senior righty Colvin Proto, who threw a complete game in the victory.
The Cadets got another strong pitching performance in the second game as Mason O’Neil struck out eight over six innings, allowing five hits and one earned run. But Cambridge battled back from a two-run deficit as Carson Clark hit a two-run homer to left center in the bottom of the sixth to tie it, and Cambridge scored the walk off win on a wild-pitch by reliever Kai Hernadez-Gambill that brought Calloway Holmes home with the winning run in a 3-2 victory.
The deciding Game 3 will be played at Benedictine on Thursday, May 7, at 4:30 p.m.
In the first game, Benedictine got off the a red hot start as Omari Burse led off with a single and Noah Harris deposited one over the fence for a two-run dinger. Catcher Mason Diamond followed with a solo shot for back-to-back homers.
In the bottom of the sixth, Diamond belted his second homer and then Kai Hernandez-Gambill followed with a solo shot of his own for the Cadets second back-to-back homers of the night. Ike Ross also had a home run for the Cadets.
The bats cooled in Game 2, but the Cadets played an excellent game.
“I thought it was good baseball,” Pascual said. “At the end of the day — this is playoff baseball. We’re one of the last eight teams standing and so are they. Those were well played, well pitched games. Colvin (Proto) gave us a great first game on the mound and Mason (O’Neil) pitched well. Back in January, if you had told us that on May 7th Benedictine is going to be playing a Game 3 to go to the Final Four and host it, we would all take. We’re in a situation where we just need to pick each other up a little bit here and get back to work tomorrow.”
Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Benedictine baseball splits with Cambridge, setting up deciding Game 3
