Baseball: St Joseph’s Trayvon Johnson stymies Benet

Updated: May 17, 2012 8:59PM

Putting together its best stretch of baseball as the regular season has wound down, Benet has had no problem generating positive momentum recently.

With Benet hoping to keep its momentum going by sending its seniors out on a high note on Senior Day, there was one problem.

St. Joseph junior right-hander Trayvon Johnson got in the way.

Johnson tossed a complete game, scattering just three hits, in stymieing the Redwings’ offense all afternoon to help lead St. Joseph to a 3-1 victory over Benet on Thursday in Lisle.

“I just wanted to attack them with fastballs in the beginning (of the game). I couldn’t really find the off-speed until fifth, sixth, seventh inning. So then they started sitting [on] fastballs around the fifth and the sixth — that’s when they started ripping it,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to establish the fastball. Just establish my momentum (and) then go with the curveballs. And, you know, it worked out.”

Coming into Thursday having won eight of their last nine games after getting swept in a two-game series by Joliet Catholic in early May, the Redwings struggled to get much of anything going against Johnson, who struck out eight.

Johnson held Benet (18-14) hitless until Billy Tumpane singled to left with two outs in the fifth. Tumpane scored later in the inning on a RBI single up the middle from sophomore shortstop Chris Whelan.

From that point on, Johnson (5-3) allowed just one more hit, a Greg Arend single to begin the bottom of the seventh, the rest of the way.

“(Johnson) pitched really well. You know what, he throws hard enough and he threw his fastball up and down (in the zone) and we swung at some bad pitches,” Benet coach Scott Lawler said. “But he was in the strike zone more than not and he pitched really well for them (Thursday).”

St. Joseph (22-12) jumped out to a 3-0 lead by scoring all three of its runs over the course of the fourth and the fifth innings.

Having faced the minimum through three, Bobby Hayes got the first out in the fourth before Edgar Donato fired a triple into center and was eventually awarded home plate as Whelan’s throw sailed into the Redwings’ dugout.

The Chargers then proceeded to put their first two men on base to start the fifth against Hayes.

After a successful sacrifice bunt from sophomore Luke Daughenbaugh to move the runners up to second and third, respectively, Chargers’ senior Eric LeCoure knocked in both runners with a two-run single up the middle.

That’s all the run support Johnson would need.

“Tray did a great job. He kept us in the ballgame the whole time,” Chargers’ coach Jay Meath said. “We were able to push across a few in the fourth and fifth and he kept us in the ballgame the whole time. He did a great job for us. He’s been doing it all year for us.”

Hayes (5-4) allowed two earned runs on six hits while striking out three and walking four in 6 1/3 innings for the Redwings.

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.