2008 Woodie Awards
Benick delivers for baseball
Aaron Kraut
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Sports
FAIRFAX, Va. - When junior Dan Benick pinch hit for sophomore A.J. Casario in the seventh inning of yesterday's 6-4 Terrapin baseball win at George Mason, things were certainly not going the Terps' way.
Two bizarre defensive miscues - a misplayed fly ball by Casario and a throw to second by senior catcher Chad Durakis that hit junior pitcher Brett Jones in the arm as he kneeled on the mound - allowed the Patriots two runs and a 4-2 lead.
But with runners on second and third base, Benick, the seldom-used utility player, came through with a two-RBI single to center field and changed the Terps' fortunes.
"I was basically trying to hit it hard up the middle - good things happen when you do that," said Benick, who has played in 19 games this season, mostly as a late-game substitute. "The hit kind of pushed it over the edge. We started getting our fundamentals down, and everything started to work out."
The Terps tacked on another run in the inning to take a 5-4 lead they wouldn't relinquish when junior Jensen Pupa singled to drive Benick home.
After Benick's breakthrough, the Terps even started to put down effective bunts - something they've struggled to do all season.
In the eighth inning, a bunt each by junior left fielder Gerry Spessard and Durakis led to an insurance run to make the score 6-4.
"We finally had some success getting some bunts down toward the tail end of the game," coach Terry Rupp said.
Freshman reliever Matt Quinn also came up big for the Terps. Even though he surrendered two runs in the sixth, one on a squeeze bunt, Quinn had arguably the best outing of his career en route to his third win.
"It felt good. I knew we had the hits in us to get back in it," said Quinn, who in 4.2 innings of work struck out three hitters while walking one. "I went out there, threw strikes and tried to get ahead. Benick's hit up the middle was huge."
"Matt settled down, got us some real solid innings there and got us to the ninth inning," Rupp said. "That gave us an opportunity to chip away and get some things working."
Senior starting pitcher Brett Tidball managed his way out of bases-loaded jams in each of the first two innings but, after hitting his third batter of the day and Casario's misjudgment of the fly ball on which the Patriots scored their first run, Rupp decided to replace him with Jones.
A Joe Palumbo single and Pupa ground out in the top of the third gave the Terps a 2-0 lead off Patriots starter Ryan Brecko.
But in the end, it was Benick's pinch hit single that won the game for the Terps and pushed their record to 8-2 against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association.
"Dan's hit up the middle was a big hit," Rupp said. "He came up big for us today."
akrautdbk@gmail.com
Two bizarre defensive miscues - a misplayed fly ball by Casario and a throw to second by senior catcher Chad Durakis that hit junior pitcher Brett Jones in the arm as he kneeled on the mound - allowed the Patriots two runs and a 4-2 lead.
But with runners on second and third base, Benick, the seldom-used utility player, came through with a two-RBI single to center field and changed the Terps' fortunes.
"I was basically trying to hit it hard up the middle - good things happen when you do that," said Benick, who has played in 19 games this season, mostly as a late-game substitute. "The hit kind of pushed it over the edge. We started getting our fundamentals down, and everything started to work out."
The Terps tacked on another run in the inning to take a 5-4 lead they wouldn't relinquish when junior Jensen Pupa singled to drive Benick home.
After Benick's breakthrough, the Terps even started to put down effective bunts - something they've struggled to do all season.
In the eighth inning, a bunt each by junior left fielder Gerry Spessard and Durakis led to an insurance run to make the score 6-4.
"We finally had some success getting some bunts down toward the tail end of the game," coach Terry Rupp said.
Freshman reliever Matt Quinn also came up big for the Terps. Even though he surrendered two runs in the sixth, one on a squeeze bunt, Quinn had arguably the best outing of his career en route to his third win.
"It felt good. I knew we had the hits in us to get back in it," said Quinn, who in 4.2 innings of work struck out three hitters while walking one. "I went out there, threw strikes and tried to get ahead. Benick's hit up the middle was huge."
"Matt settled down, got us some real solid innings there and got us to the ninth inning," Rupp said. "That gave us an opportunity to chip away and get some things working."
Senior starting pitcher Brett Tidball managed his way out of bases-loaded jams in each of the first two innings but, after hitting his third batter of the day and Casario's misjudgment of the fly ball on which the Patriots scored their first run, Rupp decided to replace him with Jones.
A Joe Palumbo single and Pupa ground out in the top of the third gave the Terps a 2-0 lead off Patriots starter Ryan Brecko.
But in the end, it was Benick's pinch hit single that won the game for the Terps and pushed their record to 8-2 against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association.
"Dan's hit up the middle was a big hit," Rupp said. "He came up big for us today."
akrautdbk@gmail.com
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