St. Benedict's wins Buffalo North Catholic JV baseball title

St. Benedict's recently shut out St. Mark's, 3-0, to win the Buffalo North Catholic junior varsity baseball championship. Members of the team, pictured from left, are: front row - Kevin Klute, Joey Wittmann, Jonny O'Rourke, Will Boerema, Devon Florczak; second row - Joey Insalaco, PJ Anders, Sean Klute, Boog MacDonald, Colin Tenney; third row - Boomer Snyder, Nick Elmer, Jimmy Croglio, Matt MacDonald; top row - coaches Joe Wittmann, Mike MacDonald and John Klute; missing from photo - Jamie Garand and Julia Blujus.

The St. Benedict's Tigers used great pitching, solid defense and some timely hitting to upend the St. Mark's Lions, 3-0, to win the Buffalo North Catholic junior varsity baseball championship.

Colin Tenney and Matt MacDonald combined to throw a one-hit shutout and strike out 14 St. Mark's batters for the win. Tenney, who allowed only two batters to reach base over three innings, was aided by the strong defensive plays of PJ Anders and Boog MacDonald. Matt MacDonald struck out eight in three innings of work and was helped in the fourth by a great running catch by left fielder Will Boerema. The Tigers scored the only run they would need in

the second when Tenney led off with a bunt single, stole second and scored on an infield hit by Anders. They added two insurance runs in the fourth. Joey Wittmann started with a perfect bunt for a base hit then Joey Insalaco and Colin Tenney drew bases loaded walks to score Matt MacDonald and Jimmy Croglio. Sean Klute also contributed a key base hit for St. Benedict's.

St. Benedict's finished the JV season undefeated and got big contributions from Jamie Garand, Boomer Snyder, Nick Elmer, Kevin Klute, Jonny O'Rourke, and Julia Blujus. Also helping the team and coaching staff were official scorer Devon Florczak and pitching coach Nick MacDonald.