The Benedictine Mesa baseball team took Saturday’s doubleheader against Park-Gilbert and split Sunday’s games, clinching the series win.
Game 1: Benedictine Mesa delivered a dominant offensive performance, overwhelming Park-Gilbert 25-13 in a high-scoring showdown.
Park-Gilbert struck first, taking a 3-0 lead through the first two innings. J. Leckey walked in a run in the first, followed by RBI hits from Allanson and Bejarano in the second. The Redhawks responded in the third with an Alec Larson solo home run and a Jacob Bauler sacrifice fly, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
The fourth inning was an offensive explosion for Benedictine. Sam Ruchala crushed a three-run homer to take the lead, and from there, the floodgates opened. Joe Cosenza reached on an error to bring in another run, followed by a Bauler RBI single. Then, AJ Fernandez launched a grand slam, extending the lead to 11-3. The Redhawks kept piling on, with Carlos Parra adding a two-run double, Cosenza and Ben Schnuman delivering RBI hits, and Fernandez smashing his second home run of the inning—a three-run blast—to cap a monstrous 13-run frame, making it 18-3.
Park-Gilbert's Je. Leckey homered in the fifth, but Benedictine answered with a Jude Sullivan two-run homer to extend the lead to 20-4. Sullivan added another two-run shot in the seventh, followed by a Tyler Jackson homer to make it 24-4.
Despite a late push from Park-Gilbert, which scored eight runs in the final two innings, Benedictine remained in control. Sullivan's solo shot in the eighth sealed the deal, as the Redhawks secured a commanding 25-13 win.
Game 2: Benedictine Mesa completed the sweep with a 7-4 win, fueled by a decisive sixth-inning rally.
The Redhawks took an early 1-0 lead in the second when Jose Romero singled in Sam Ruchala. Park-Gilbert tied the game in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk that scored Valk.
Benedictine responded with a dominant bottom half of the inning. Ruchala delivered the game's biggest hit, a bases-clearing triple that drove in Bauler, Schnuman, and Preston Vine-Close, putting the Redhawks ahead 4-1. AJ Fernandez reached on an error, allowing Ruchala to score, and Jackson followed with an RBI double. Sullivan capped off the inning with another double, making it 7-1.
Park-Gilbert attempted a comeback in the seventh when Allanson tripled in three runs, cutting the deficit to 7-4, but Benedictine's defense shut down any further rally to secure the win.
Game 3: Benedictine Mesa fell behind early and was unable to recover as Park-Gilbert took control from the start. The Buccaneers put up five runs in the first inning, capitalizing on a series of timely hits and an RBI walk. The Redhawks got on the board in the second inning when Tyler Jackson advanced to third on an error, allowing Stephan Goldsberry to score.
After a quiet stretch, Park-Gilbert pulled away in the sixth, using a three-run double and an RBI single to extend their lead to 11-1. Benedictine showed some fight in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four runs, including a two-RBI single from Carlos Parra and a sacrifice fly from AJ Fernandez, cutting the deficit to 15-5. However, Park-Gilbert tacked on four more runs in the final two innings to put the game out of reach, handing Benedictine a tough 19-5 loss.
Game 4: The Redhawks responded in determined fashion in game two, overcoming an early deficit to claim a commanding 20-12 victory.
Park-Gilbert struck first with a three-run home run in the opening inning, but Benedictine answered as Tyler Jackson’s RBI double put them on the board. The Buccaneers extended their lead to 9-1 in the second, but the Redhawks refused to back down.
Benedictine’s comeback began in the fourth inning, with Jude Sullivan delivering a two-run double and the Redhawks capitalizing on an error to close the gap to 9-6. The momentum carried into the fifth as Jack Moore and Cooper Jeffries knocked in runs to bring the Redhawks within one at 9-8.
After Park-Gilbert added a run in the sixth, Benedictine took over with a massive 12-run inning. AJ Fernandez launched a three-run homer to give the Redhawks their first lead, followed by a grand slam from Alec Larson that extended the advantage. Jude Sullivan added a two-run homer, while Sam Ruchala and Ethan Graham tacked on key RBI hits to push the lead to 20-10.
Park-Gilbert managed two more runs in the seventh, but Benedictine’s explosive offense proved insurmountable as they secured the statement win.