Buckley, Novak Lead Way For St. Petersburg Catholic

They say death comes in threes, and as Thursday night proved for St. Petersburg Catholic in its game against Saint Stephens, three seems to be a magical number in baseball as well. Thanks to a three-run third inning and six strong innings from starter Ben Buckley, the Barons were able to come away with a 7-1 victory over the Falcons.

For St. Petersburg Catholic, who started the season 1-4 and 1-2 in the district, this game showed that there’s still some fight left in manager Ron Rhoads’ squad. After having had some issues with offense throughout the first couple weeks and only scoring 21 runs to 39 given up in their first five games, the Barons came out firing. They recorded seven hits — two of which came off the bat of third baseman Michael Novak — and drew three walks. Six of the Barons’ starting nine recorded hits on Thursday night.

Caleb Eyre, who started on the mound for the Falcons, recorded two hits of his own, while Mike Madigan and Nick Runde both got on base via walks.

Buckley, who also had an RBI single to his credit, threw sixty-four pitches over his six innings of work. Though he only had one strikeout, he remained in control the entire time and didn’t let an early run in the first inning rattle him. Control was a big part of Buckley’s success, as sixty percent of his sixty-four pitches went for strikes.

After starting the game at third base, Michael Novak pitched the final inning for the Barons and struck out two.

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