Piper Cruises Past South Broward 16-7

Piper third baseman Chris Costanzo homered and drove in three runs as the Bengals raced to a fast start and never looked back in a 16-7 victory over host South Broward in a District 11-6A match up.

South Broward’s ace Casey Hayes suffered a right elbow injury while warming up before the first pitch, forcing right-hander Zach Roberts to take the mound to start the game.

The Bengals took advantage of the sudden pitching change by batting around in the first inning while scoring five runs. At one point, Piper had six straight hits as seven base runners reached base consecutively with one out.

Center-fielder Mike Morejon doubled and came around to score on an RBI single by Bryan Rath to start the scoring in the first. Pitcher Alen Arslenyan then ripped an RBI double to plate Rath and extend the Bengals lead to 2-0.

Costanzo, who finished 3-for-5, smashed a two-run home run over the left-field fence to give the Bengals a 4-0 lead. Right fielder Ronny Bailey followed with a double and scored on a fielding error to end the scoring for the inning.

“We came out aggressive and ready to play,” Piper coach Chris Costanzo said. “We were seeing the ball well. We needed to rebound from our loss to South Plantation last night and it was a great bounce back game.”

Arslenyan struggled to find his command when he took the mound in the first, giving up three runs on just one hit. The right-hander walked five of the first six batters he faced.

Ulysses Peguero, who had three hits and drove in two, had an infield single in the inning scoring Josh James to cut the deficit to 5-3.

Arslanyan battled back to induce an unconventional 1-2-3, inning-ending double play to escape the jam.

“I started off wild, but I settled down and that double play really helped,” Arslanyan said.

Arslanyan picked up the victory, allowing five earned runs over five innings while striking out five.  He also finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs at the plate.

The Bengals poured it on in the third inning with six runs to take a 12-3 lead.

South Broward pushed across a run in the third on an RBI single into center by Mugione.

Piper answered back in the fifth inning. First baseman Kharlin Sued ripped a double down the right-field line off reliever Cody Behr to give the Bengals a 13-4 lead.

From there, the Bengals cruised to victory, and South Broward was left wondering just how significant a loss this may have been considering James’ potential injury.

“When you have your number one pitcher go down, it’s never encouraging,” South Broward coach Joe Giumulle said.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!