There are two things that St. Laurence pitcher Jimmy Benson doesn’t lack: Height and belief in himself.
In an all-Vikings matchup with Homewood-Flossmoor on April 19 in Burbank, the 6-foot-8 sophomore lefthander turned in an impressive performance in guiding the hosts to a 12-2 victory in six innings.
Benson worked five innings to improve to 3-0, striking out nine and walking three. He allowed two hits and one earned run.
“My strength is my confidence,” Benson said. “I just try my best to get guys out. I play against good competition all the time, so I want to go out there and do my best.
“I have all the confidence to try to be better than all of them. I want to go out there and do my thing. I went out there and tried to pound the (strike) zone. With my fastball, I try to blow it by them and my (changeup) is good when I get it in the zone.”
Benson had plenty of offensive support. Mickey Lotus reached twice on bunt singles and scored four runs, Cory Les drove in three runs and scored twice, Ben Geary chipped in two RBIs and Connor Marino scored twice as St. Laurence (13-3) won its ninth consecutive game.
“Jimmy’s been throwing the ball extremely well the whole season,” St. Laurence coach Pete Lotus said. “He did a great job of throwing strikes. He doesn’t allow a lot of runners and when he does, his composure has been outstanding.
“I love what he does for us. He was up (on the varsity) a little last year and that was a big deal. Jimmy’s a main guy for us. He has a great presence out there for a sophomore.”
In the bottom of the first, the hosts scored four runs on Geary’s two-run single to right, an RBI walk by Adrian Perez and an RBI groundout by catcher Enrique Villanueva.
After an RBI single by Daniel Coyle in the second inning made it 5-0, St. Laurence tacked on three more runs in the fourth as Danny Donovan began the frame with a solo home run to left. Four batters later, Les contributed his two-run single, increasing St. Laurence’s lead to 8-0.
“That was the first home run of my high school career,” Donovan said. “When I hit it, I felt it hit the barrel and it got out, I guess.
“I wasn’t sure it was going out, so I put my head down and started running. When it did go out, I was really happy.”
H-F (9-9) broke up Benson’s no-hit bid in the fifth as Mateo Morales singled to left to start the inning.
“One thing about Jimmy is that he’s really confident out there,” Villanueva said. “He can go out there and pound the zone and that’s all we ask of our pitchers. With his composure, you can’t tell if he’s a sophomore or a senior.”
St. Laurence ended the game with four runs in the bottom of the sixth as Les (bases-loaded walk) and pinch-hitters Aadden Guerrero (single), Sam Lefils (walk) and Julian Esparza (groundout) drove in runs.