MANISTEE — Benzie Central made a run to the regional championship finals last season. This year, the Huskies are hoping to make it further and, in the process, make some program history after winning a varsity baseball district title Monday.
Benzie (20-13) knocked off Kingsley (19-6) by a 6-0 final at Manistee’s Mariner Field on Monday, claiming a Division 3 district championship.
“It was a heckuva game and a heckuva win — total team effort,” Benzie head coach Rich Gottardo said. “We had guys contributing all over the lineup, and the boys are starting to play defense a lot better than they were at the beginning of the year. We’ve pitched well all year, we just haven’t always had the run support or the defense behind our pitchers. But everything was firing on all cylinders for the boys (Monday).”
The Huskies got on the board with one in the bottom of the first and another in the bottom of the second to go up 2-0 on Kingsley. The score remained 2-0 until Benzie pushed two across in the fifth and then two more in the bottom half of the sixth to pull away late and give their pitching some breathing room in a championship game.
“We were telling the boys all day, ‘Win every at-bat. Win every inning.’ And I think we did that,” Gottardo said. “Those late runs gave our guys more leeway about what they could throw and how they could approach guys. Pitching in a 6-0 game is a lot different than a 2-0 game.”
Jayden Ewing got the win on the mound for Benzie. The Huskie hurler went six innings and only gave up two hits while being effectively wild with six walks and three strikeouts. Wallington finished off the game in the seventh, preserving the shutout.
“I was a little worried about throwing Ewing against Kingsley — because they’ve already seen him — but they weren’t hitting him well,” Gottardo said. “They’re our conference opponent, and they know us pretty well and have good scouting on us; so we knew they’d be ready to play. But (Ewing) came in and pitched a great game, and Wallington shutting it down in the seventh was huge.”
Tegan Chicky had a big day for the Huskies, going 3 for 4, including a double, with three runs driven in. Wallington finished with a hit, two runs scored and an RBI. Lane Sanchez was 2 for 4 with a double, and Grayson Converse also picked up two hits with an RBI.
The Huskies are slated to take on Shelby at Kingsley on Wednesday with a 5 p.m. start time. Gottardo said after Monday’s win that he is not worried about the short turnaround for his team.
“The boys are clicking, right now. I’d rather play another game right away so the boys don’t lose that momentum,” he said. “We might go with our ace, Sanchez, if we need to. Wallington is still available. Last year on our run, we were probably another pitcher away, and I think we’re better stocked with arms this year.”
The win was the ninth straight for the Huskies, who took a hot streak to end the regular season right into postseason play.
“Last year, we kind of did the same thing,” Gottardo said. “We teetered around in April and then once it turned to May, the boys started playing ball and winning games. It’s kind of nice to see that pattern repeating itself this year.”
The Huskies don’t want to see their season end anytime soon.
“We’ve got five seniors on this team, and we want to extend their year as far as we can,” Gottardo said. “They all just graduated (Sunday), and we want to give them as much high school baseball as we can. There’s nothing like playing with the boys you grew up with. We’ve hammered it home with our underclassmen to leave it all out there and play for our seniors.”
A win Wednesday followed by a win Saturday against either Pinconning or Reed City at Traverse City Central’s Trojan Athletic Complex would secure the Huskies’ first varsity baseball regional championship in school history.
Benzie installed a new scoreboard at its baseball facility, but Gottardo said they left the I-beams from the old scoreboard in place and hung a championship banner there.
“That’s where we have all of our conference titles and district titles,” Gottardo said. “We’ve been telling the boys that there’s nothing under the ‘regional’ section. ‘If you guys are playing ball like you’re capable of, we’re going to put a 2024 championship up there.’ And that’s what it is. If they play like they did against Kingsley, I think we’re well on our way to doing that.”