St. Benedict's defeats St. John the Baptist for baseball title

Davis, Nick DeJoy, Marc DiLeo, Derek Fraas; second row - coach Herb Glose, Patrick Glose, Sam Insalaco, Paul Boerema, Dylan Beres, coach Joe DiLeo; third row - coach Bryan Tenney, Sean Tenney, Dylan Blujus, Zac Garlick, Brendan Tenney and coach Stan Blujus.

St. Benedict's School of Eggertsville recently claimed its first Diocesan baseball championship by defeating St. John the Baptist of Kenmore, 6-5, before an enthusiastic crowd of over 500 fans at Dunn Tire Park.

The game pitted two teams that only had one loss between them, so everyone knew it was going to be a close game.

St. Benedict's scored in the top of the second inning as Paul Boerema singled, stole second and ended up scoring on a passed ball to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

St. John's countered with a run in the fourth to tie the game as Paul Tronolone doubled to deep left field and scored on a single.

The Tigers took a 3-1 lead in the fifth as Patrick Glose and Peter Gregory scored.

After seeing their lead cut to 3-2 in the bottom of the inning, St. Benedict's put two more runs on the board after there were two outs. Brendan Tenney and Zac Garlick scored to open a 5-2 lead before St. John's tied it up with a bases-loaded triple by Adam Dikeman.

The drama carried into the seventh inning as Sean Tenney, Dylan Blujus and Marc DiLeo opened up the seventh with singles, and Tenney scored what proved to be the winning run while another base runner was caught in a rundown. The Tigers secured the championship by getting the last out of the game with the tying run on third base.

Boerema, DiLeo and Tenney led the St. Benedict's offensive attack with two hits each, while Glose, Gregory, Blujus and Garlick all chipped in with base hits. The pitching staff of Gregory (3.1 innings), Tenney (2.2 innings) and Blujus (closer) combined to limit St. John's to seven hits.

St. Benedict's, which also won the St. Francis grammar school preseason tournament last fall, finishes with an overall record of 21-1.

Fr. Gary Bagley, former pastor at St. Benedict's who died in November, was honorary general manager.