For the first time since March of 2021, Benedictine Baseball walked off Laughlin Field with a four-game Heart series sweep on Saturday.
With their bid to the 2023 Heart Baseball Championship Series still on the line, Benedictine needed to match whatever Missouri Valley College did headed into the final weekend of the regular season. Friday, the Vikings suffered a sweep at the hands of Park University while the Ravens picked up a sweep over the Pioneers to lock in a berth into the Heart Championship Series.
Friday, Benedictine opened the series with a walk-off win in 8 innings, 6-5, and then followed that up with a 5-3 win in game two. Saturday, as they celebrated their Seniors prior to the final doubleheader of the season, Benedictine took down the Pioneers with a 4-2 and 11-1 win to take the four-game series.
The four-game sweep over the Pioneers also snapped a streak for Benedictine as it marked the first time the Ravens have taken all four games of a series with the Pioneers since the Heart moved to a four-game divisional play format.
Game 1: Benedictine 6, MNU 5
The Ravens rallied to score 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings. Chase Pearson singled to score Jack Minnis before he scored on a double by Hunter Moffet.
After MNU pulled back ahead with a run in the top of the eighth inning, the Ravens got another late-inning swing from Zac Demos to walk-off the Pioneers. After Ashton Neuman singled to start the inning, Demos hit a 2-run home run to earn the comeback victory for the Ravens.
Lance Bolles earned the win for the Ravens on the hill. He went all 8 innings, giving up 1 earned run off 8 hits with 4 strikeouts.
Minnis and Pearson went 2 for 3 at the plate with two runs scored each. Pearson joined Moffet and Danny Favazza with doubles.
Game 2: Benedictine 5, MNU 3
Jackson Sarver allowed 2 earned runs off 5 hits over 4 innings before Matthew Gephardt came in and closed the door on the Pioneers on the hill. Gephardt limited MNU to just 1 hit over 3 innings to earn the win as Benedictine seal the doubleheader win.
After Favazza scored on an error, Demos hit a sac-fly that scored Neuman to give Benedictine the lead. Favazza extended the Ravens lead with a solo home run in the fifth before Neuman doubled in Jack Harpole to give Gephardt all the support he would need.
Favazza and Brylan Haas each went 2 for 3 at the plate as Theo Kummer joined Neuman with a double.
Game 3: Benedictine 4, MNU 2
Ben DeLaForest earned his first career start in game three of the series and gave the Ravens a quality start. He held the Pioneers to 2 runs off 5 hits over 6 innings as he earned he second win of the season.
Andrew Baier came in and threw a scoreless seventh inning to earn the save for the Ravens.
Benedictine took the lead in the bottom of the first inning on a 2 RBI single from Neuman that scored Favazza and Creighton Cordova. They added 2 more runs in the sixth inning when Harpole scored on a passed ball before Demos singled to drive in Neuman.
Neuman and Demos went 2 for 3 at the plate while accounting for 3 for the Ravens 4 runs in the win.
Game 4 Benedictine 11, MNU 1
Benedictine scored 7 runs over the first three innings and never looked back as they finished off the series sweep over MNU on Sunday.
Demos put the Ravens on the board in the bottom of the first with a grand slam that scored Harpole, Favazza, and Kumer. He would finish a double shy of the cycle as he finished the game 4 for 4 with a triple and two singles.
Ethan Arnold earned the start and threw the first 3 innings before giving way to Cole Peters and Nelson Klein in relief. Arnold was credited with the win, giving up 1 run off 4 hits with 2 strikeouts.
Benedictine finished the game with 11 hits. Moffet added a double as he went 3 for 4 with an RBI.
The Ravens qualify for the Heart Championship Series and will return to Ozark, Mo., for the series starting on May 4. The Championship Series bracket has not been finalized due to a postponement of the series between Mount Mercy and William Penn.
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