by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond
Lee-Davis took the lead on Andrew Hacker's two-RBI double in the third inning and didn't look back, defeating Benedictine 6-3 Wednesday night in the Spring Break Blast.
Down 1-0, shortstop Hacker took Mike Goldberg's two-out pitch up the gut bringing in Will Connerley and Jordan Walton.
"He's a player. He's pretty stealy," Lee-Davis coach Kenny Lewis said of Hacker, who finished 3 for 3 at the plate with two doubles. "He likes to get mixed up in the action, you know how kids are, they kind of look up to that."
Lee-Davis pitcher Nick Frame helped himself in the next inning, stroking a two-out RBI single for a 3-1 lead.
Frame, stepping into a loaded pitching fraternity of the Capital District, calmed down after a bunch of early walks to control a powerful Benedictine lineup.
That was until the Cadets looked to put together one of their patented big innings like they did late in a win over Atlee hours earlier, dropping six on the Raiders in the eighth inning.
Chris Hogan drilled a no-doubt homer over the left-field fence - he also had one to left against Atlee - to bring the Cadets within one.
Mark Measell singled, ending Frame's evening, and Teddy Kozak followed with another single.
Goldberg, Benedictine'e leadoff hitter, looked to keep the momentum going, hitting a rope off of reliever Taylor Marshall.
But Hacker got up from his shortstop spot to nab the sure hit.
Marshall got the powerful Taylor Buran to flyout on the next at-bat to end the inning.
"It went off the end of his bat," Hacker said of what could have been a game-saving play. "I thought it was going to be over my head. So I just ran back a little bit and jumped up about two inches up in the air and caught it."
L-D, ranked sixth in the latest DigitalSports Top 10, went and got some insurance in the bottom of the sixth.
B.J. Mortimer painted an RBI triple down the first-base line, then pinch hitter Johnny Dip crushed an RBI double up the middle for a 5-2 lead.
Connerley ended L-D's scoring with an RBI single to drive in Dip.
Hacker cleaned up in the seventh giving up one run to make L-D pitching coach Tripp Metzger's pregame proclamation true.
He told DigitalSports the score would be Lee-Davis 6-3.
Wow. Metzger's now searching for some lottery numbers.
Benedictine 010 001 1 - 3 8 1
Lee-Davis 002 103 x - 6 9 1
Goldberg, Pusey (6) and Broaddus; Frame, Marshall (6), Hacker (7) and Connerley.
Records: Benedictine (n/a); Lee-Davis (3-1)