Episcopal Academy stuns Penn Charter

DURING HIS TIME as a freshman soccer player for Episcopal Academy, Bennett Smith picked up the nickname "The Silent Assassin."

Though his position was striker, he mostly struck out.

"I was pretty bad at shooting," Smith said, smiling. "That nickname was like calling a big guy 'Tiny.' The guys came up with that because I never scored."

The 6-foot, 195-pound Smith is now a senior and the only sport he plays is baseball. The handle still holds, however, and now it makes perfect sense.

Smith does not throw especially hard, and in some ways is the classic nibbler. Friday, however, the righthander, strictly a JV performer through his junior year, posted 3 innings of one-run relief to earn the first varsity victory.

And what a win it was!

After being held to two hits through six frames in an Inter-Ac League game played under extra-gray skies and affected nonstop by strong winds, the Churchmen exploded for five runs in the home seventh to stun visiting Penn Charter, 8-7.

Smith wasn't part of the batting order, so he never got to visit the plate.

Wait, yes he did. Like the other EA guys, he dashed to that area to pummel the guys who scored the last two runs, Jack Keffer and Anthony Perretti . . . And then the guy who lashed the decisive hit, frosh AJ Lotsis.

"That was the most exciting inning of baseball I've ever been a part of," Smith said, gushing. "And I've been playing forever. I can't remember a time when I wasn't playing baseball.

"I was yelling my head off the whole time. Typical baseball jargon. When we start hitting, I really get riled up. We started the inning with the thought that four runs wasn't too big of a deficit to overcome. Then we got started and it was, 'We can do this!' Once we had the bases loaded with no outs, I knew we had it."

The uprising went like this:

Anthony Feliziani singled to right. Ben Burman drew a walk. Austin Morgan managed a scratch infield single, loading the bases. Michael Nickolas drew another walk, forcing in a run. Keffer hit what could have been a doubleplay ball; there was a bobble, a run scored and the bases remained loaded. Perretti hit into a fielder's choice, getting another run home. A wild pitch moved Keffer to third and Perretti to second. Lotsis, a lefty swinger, slashed a base hit through the left side. Perretti briefly stopped at third, but then dashed home after witnessing the leftfielder's bobble.

In the first six innings, aside from yielding only the two hits (by Keffer), junior righty TJ Pagan bagged 11 outs on grounders. In the seventh, as evidenced by words ("C'mon, blue") and body language (shaking of head), it was obvious he was displeased by what he judged to be a tight strike zone.

"He wasn't the same guy anymore," Smith said. "We thought he was tired, too."

Episcopal's starter was righty Adam Seibert, a 6-5 junior. He was removed in the fourth after walking three straight batters.

Smith was greeted by Kenny Bergmann's two-run double to left-center. It probably should have been caught; nobody got a good jump. Sheer hustle and sliding skill by Demetrius "Meech" Isaac turned Pagan's 120-foot popup into a sac fly, then Joey Lancellotti drove in PC's seventh run (and sixth of the inning) with a ground-ball single to left.

Smith retired 10 of the last 12 batters he faced.

"Now the baseball guys call me 'The Silent Assassin' because I just throw strikes," he said. "Coming in after Seibert, who throws 10 to 15 miles an hour faster than I do, I knew they'd be on my pitches and that I'd have to keep them low. That's my whole mantra: Keep 'em low.

"I have to give it to Penn Charter. My pitches were where I wanted them, but they hit some balls hard. I knew my fielders would have my back."

Bergmann, a frosh catcher, finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI. Zach Kurtz started the six-run fourth with a one-out triple, Jordan Della Valle followed with an RBI single, and Steven Cohen helped out by drawing his third consecutive walk.

For EA, Nickolas contributed a two-run single in the second and scored a freebie in the fifth. He singled, moved to third on two wild pitches, then scampered home when the third baseman momentarily dozed and failed to notice a pickoff throw coming toward him.

Smith, who lives in Wayne, will likely attend Rochester and focus on mechanical engineering. Perretti and extra-smooth shortstop Doug Trimble, a Delaware commit who hit into two hard outs while going 0-for-3, are EA's only other seniors.

"I wish I could see this team 2 to 3 years down the road, so I could see how they're doing," Smith said.