Benton Academy and Manchester Academy’s baseball teams met on the diamond for a two-game season series on Monday and Friday last week.
The games were played for bragging rights between the two cross-town rivals, which made everything mean a little more.
The first game was played at Benton on a very sloppy night for baseball. The cold and rainy weather caused problems for both teams defensively.
To start out in the top of the first inning, Maverick third baseman Warner Griffin would hit an inside the park homerun on what just started as a sacrifice bunt attempt.
This put the Mavericks up 2-0 and an RBI triple for will Fouche later in the inning made it 4-0 after one.
After a scoreless first for the Raiders, the Mavericks went back to the work in the 2nd inning. RBIs by Tyler Reynolds, Lake Clay, and Ty Kilpatrick opened up a 10-0 lead for the Mavericks and they would never look back.
Late in the game Benton’s Hayden Middleton would knock in a run and later score on a passed ball, but it wouldn’t be enough to defeat the Mavericks.
The Mavericks would capitalize on more Raider errors and would eventually pull away winning 14-2 on the road..
Friday’s game was played at Manchester on a much better night for baseball. The Mavericks wouldn’t start out as hot due to much improved Raider pitching and defense.
The game was scoreless for the first inning and a half until Maverick right fielder Ravi Patel drove in a run to make it 1-0 after two innings.
Tyler Reynolds scored on an error in the 3rd making it 2-0 Mavericks.
Benton would add a run on a wild pitch in the 4th but the Mavericks would eventually pull through for a more difficult 6-1 win.
Manchester would sweep Benton in the 2 game series after proving in both games they were the much better team. Errors and lack of timely hits ended up being the reason for Benton’s struggles as Manchester seemed to make all the plays Benton couldn’t make in the series.
Both teams continue the rest of their season trying to improve on their performance in the series and get ready to start conference play soon.
