By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
With five combined runs and seven combined hits through the first two innings, it seemed like Saturday's bout between Savannah and Benton could be a high-scoring affair.
At the end of the sixth inning, the score was the same.
Savannah (15-7) nabbed an early 3-2 lead in the second inning, and held that slim advantage entering the seventh.
With two outs and nobody on in the top of the seventh, it appeared the Savages were going to post another zero on the scoreboard.
Then, Tyson Hilsabeck walked, Ethan Dennis reached on an error and Gabe Piper hit a bloop single to centerfield to load the bases.
Three walks later, with a passed ball and wild pitch sprinkled in between, Savannah scratched across three runs in the top of the seventh and held on for a 6-2 win over Benton in an MEC Conference battle Saturday afternoon at Hyde Park.
Piper, who started on the mound, threw a complete game and put the Cardinals (10-13) down in order in the bottom of the seventh to polish off the victory.
Piper allowed only four hits while striking out six and walking just one.
"I feel like I did pretty good," Piper said. "I had a couple of bad pitches in the dirt and a couple of passed balls, but I feel like I did a good job."
Savannah committed two errors in the field, but the Savages set the Cardinals down in order in the fourth and seventh innings, and they held the Cardinals without a hit for nine consecutive at-bats between the second and fifth innings.
"That helps a lot," said Piper. "I think in the last few weeks, we've been able to come together as a team and work together a lot."
Offensively, Savannah saw the ball well throughout the game, connecting for 11 total hits. Truman Bodenhausen led the way, going 3-for-5 at the plate with a run scored and two RBIs. He reached first safely on a pair of successful bunts - one in the first and another in the fourth.
He gave the Savages an early lead with a two-run RBI to right in the second.
"I did what I needed to do," Bodenhausen said. "My teammates got into a good situation. I just had to drive them in."
The Savages had some missed opportunities to put the game away, stranding 10 total baserunners. They left them loaded in the fourth and again in the seventh inning, but the head coach was all-in-all pleased.
"We battled the whole way through," Savannah coach Erich Bodenhausen said. "We had lots of opportunities to score. We left a lot of people out there. But, we broke it open there in the end. I liked our pitching, we did a good job on defense and we hit the ball hard."
Savannah has now won four of its last five games and are 10-2 in their last 12. The Savages have only two games left in the regular season, including a critical district tilt at Lafayette (14-6) on Tuesday.
The Class 4 District 16 bracket was released Saturday, and the Irish have secured the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in district play, which starts Friday. Lafayette gets the No. 1 seed, since they beat Savannah 4-0 on March 30.
The Savages are the No. 2 seed in districts, and will face Maryville in the first round on May 18 at Phil Welch Stadium.
But before that point, the Savages want to show that they're a force to be reckoned with - just like their counterpart Lafayette.
"Hopefully we beat (Lafayette) next week," Truman Bodenhausen said. "I just hope we play good against them next week."
"Our thing is to take it one game at a time, and really one pitch at a time, and let the game take care of itself," said Coach Bodenhausen.
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