Connor Gillooly ’14 | Staff Writer

It was a busy day for the scoreboard operators on Grosse Pointe South’s diamond on Saturday as the varsity baseball team hosted Liggett, Port Huron Northern, and North as part of the GPS Invitational.

Early Saturday morning, nine of Grosse Pointe South’s players hit the field for their first game, against Liggett. The Liggett Knights got off to an early lead, but due to a key double from Carmen Bennedetti ’13 and an RBI from Jack Doyle ’13, The Blue Devils led 4-2 at the end of an eventful first inning.

South’s starting pitcher Richie Kish ’14 controlled the mound for his 3.1 inning stint, throwing 4 strikeouts as his teammates tacked on two unanswered runs.

In the top of the fourth inning, Liggett’s bats warmed up. After a sacrifice fly and two timely doubles from the Liggett offense, the score was tied, 6-6.

Following suit, South players scored two more runs. Base hits from Andrew Eaton and Brett Bigham, both ’14, were complemented by aggressive base running to give South the upper hand.

Although Liggett scored three runs late in the game, South was able to rally in the bottom of the sixth to score two of their own, winning their first game of the day 10-9.

Later on, they were not so lucky. After five shutout innings from Port Huron Northern’s ace, South suffered a 10-0 loss. However, one more game offered South the chance to redeem themselves.

With a chance to win the invitational, the crosstown rivals faced off and combined for 17 runs in the final game of the day.

After a relatively quiet first two innings, South put themselves on the scoreboard in the third inning. A double from Benedetti prompted both Ryan Liagre ’15 and Jimmy Menchl ’14 to cross the plate. Not only did Benedetti put in work at the plate, racking up 2 hits and 4 RBI’s, he also earned eight strikeouts during his strong 4.1 innings on the mound.

“Support from the fans and our teammates help us stay up even when we are down,” said South infielder Colden Gosselin ’14. “It gives us the motivation to come back and win big games like Liggett and North.

A few solid at bats put Benedetti up to bat in the bottom of the 6^th with runners perched on all bases. A Benedetti single to left field brought in runner Clay Kreisler ’14 with Gosselin following.

“Scoring the winning run for the game against North was really exciting,” said Gosselin. “When Carmen came up to the plate and we knew we could win, it made the feeling of being the winning run that much better.”

This marks South’s 20th victory in the last 22 games against North. The dominance over North is a pretty great feeling, said three year varsity member Jack Doyle.

Moving forward, South looks to continue to win and get on a roll.

“Once this team gets rolling we will be tough to stop,” said Doyle. “We have the talent and with the coaching we have privilege of playing under, it is only a matter of time before we get hot.”

The varsity baseball team will host Utica Eisenhower on Tuesday, April 30.

Matthew Riashi ’13 contributed to this story.