By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — “When we can put two or three phases together, we’re a tough team to beat.”
Those were the words of St. Bonaventure baseball head coach Jason Rathbun after his team’s series finale victory over George Washington on April 4. In that game, they put behind them the defensive struggles that had plagued them throughout the year, came up with the big hits when they needed to and got a resounding effort on the mound.
In a mid-week fixture against Big 4 rival Canisius, the Bonnies stayed hot. They, once again, put all three phases of the game together and collected an 11-2 victory.
Following the series win over the Revolutionaries, Rathbun acknowledged that defense has been his team’s Achilles’ heel all season. But in that series finale there were signs of turning a corner. They had a clean outing with no errors in a 5-3 win — which solidified their first A10 series win of the season. That trend continued against the Golden Griffins as they put together yet another mistake-free performance.
“I’ve always believed in the talent, we just haven’t played great,” Rathbun said. “I think when we play defense, it helps our pitching, which we already feel really strong and confident in. It was a great defensive effort today. Again, it’s great to be playing at home. I think playing at home on our own field is a big advantage to us. … I think there’s definitely a difference when we play at home, and the defense showed up. The offense put a lot of runs on the board which allowed our pitchers to attack the zone and get the win today.”
St. Bonaventure’s Derek Duval (99) delivers a pitch against Canisius. Duval struck out two batters in three innings of work in the win. (Hunter O. Lyle)
Bona worked through a number of pitchers on the day and aside from the two runs conceded in the top of the fourth, they were a thorn in the side of the Golden Griffins. The Bonnies’ pitching rotation combined to strand 11 runners, an example of the resilience and depth within the rotation.
“There’s a couple guys that pitched today that normally pitch on the weekends for us,” Rathbun said. “Duval, who started it, has been a really good arm out of the bullpen for us. Joey Calabretti has been a really good arm out of the bullpen for us. We wanted to kind of bookend them, … so it was really about filling those middle innings. Those guys that are filling the middle have pitched a lot. Mark Holm has pitched a lot, but they’ve been short stints. Kucy is a one-inning guy. Giblin is still young and learning, this was only his third outing. So, we were able to bridge it to Joey from Derek with those three guys. The plan worked out really well.”
The hosts’ offense hummed as well, lightening the load of the defense and pitching unit. Joey Bruno had a multi-hit day, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run. Antonio Cordeiro tallied two RBI as well, going 1-for-5 with a run. But leading the way was Anthony Fernandez. After hitting the game-winning home run against GW last time out, Fernandez highlighted a nine-hit day for Bona, going 3-for-5 with three runs and an RBI.
“Honestly, it’s tough to like him any more, I mean, I love that kid,” Rathbun said. “We have a great relationship. I love talking to him. We had a conversation in the dugout, I didn’t think in his first and second at-bats that he had real good swings. I thought he put the ball in play, but I didn’t think they were real aggressive hacks. We talked about it a little bit, and then he roped one. He’s just very easy to talk to. He’s very coachable. I love coaching him. He’s a super sweet kid and everything that you look for in a student athlete.”
St. Bonaventure’s Chris Hoalcraft (2) looks to turn a double-play. (Hunter O. Lyle)
Canisius responded to the Bonnies’ two runs in the bottom of the third with two of their own in the top of the fourth. But the response failed to disrupt the flow Bona found itself in as, much to the satisfaction of Rathbun, kept its foot on the gas.
“We’ve played a lot of close games, and we’ve been looking for that breakout hit to continue to pile runs on in a game,” Rathbun said. “We haven’t done a great job of that this year. We’ve been better the last four or five games of doing that. I thought today was another one of those cases where we got runners on and we were able to manufacture some runs and put multiple runs up in multiple innings. That’s what you need to do to win.”
St. Bonaventure has now won four of its last five games and will carry that momentum into its upcoming series at Davidson, set to begin on April 10 at 5 p.m.
