Zientarski Paces Benjamin Past Coral Springs Charter

Zach Zientarski provided all of the run production and nearly all of the mound work on Tuesday night, leading the Benjamin Buccaneers to a 2-0 cross-county win over host Coral Springs Charter. Zientarski backed his six shutout innings on the mound with a two-run home run.

Shortstop Matt Ellmyer instilled confidence in Zientarski in the second inning when he laid out to rob a hit away from the Panthers and, from his belly, flipped to second, starting a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play. The play set the tone for the Bucs’ defense, which was superb the rest of the night.

With confidence in his teammates behind him, Zientarski pitched to contact. effectively allowing him to limit his pitch count on the night to a minuscule 70. Only once did he have to toss over 15 pitches in an inning. Keeping the ball down, he induced seven groundouts, two of which wound up going for twin killings.

“Last outing I walked a bunch of guys, so this time around I really wanted to make sure I was throwing strikes and from there I just let my defense work,” Zientarski said. “I wasn’t really worried about my velocity or anything; I was just trying to throw strikes.”

Although he was thrilled with the start by the junior, Manager Brian Kaplan admitted it was nothing he doesn’t expect out of him.

“That’s what we expect out of Zientarski,” Kaplan said. “He had a rough outing his last time out but we didn’t lose confidence in him for one second, and I think he proved why tonight. He came out filling up the strike zone, the defense was confident behind him, the tempo of the game was quick and it was moving. That was a big start for him and for us, especially down the home stretch of the season.”

Offensively, Zientarski and his battery mate, catcher Logan Taplett, helped their own cause in the fourth inning. After a fantastic seven-pitch at bat by Talpett in which he fought off four quality pitches, ran the count full, and displayed a great 3-2 approach, the catcher singled. Zientarski’s homer was the first longball hit at Cypress Park this season, and a mammoth shot that wrapped around the left field foul pole. Zientarski attributed the homer to being able to keep his head in the game because he was more concerned with getting outs on the mound.

Tommy Romero got the start for the Panthers and although he may have been missing a few miles an hour off his fastball early in the game, he had his breaking stuff working for him. Despite having to battle back from being down 1-0 a lot, he came back with a second-pitch strike almost every time. His one mistake pitch on the night was a hanging changeup that Zientarski wound up getting a hold of.

Much like he did with his counts though, Romero was able to come back immediately by stranding a runner at third and limiting the fourth inning damage to just two runs. As the sun went down behind Cypress Park, Romero’s arm heated up. He found the rest of his velocity and hung four more Ks over his last three innings. Romero totaled eight strikeouts on the night, running his season total to 57 and keeping pace with the top five in Broward County.

“He didn’t have his best stuff but he was one pitch away,” Panthers Manager Mike Higgins said. “He just got a changeup up and they hit it a long way. But other than that one pitch he had great command of the game and his pitches. It shouldn’t be like that, that you feel like if you make one mistake can lose the game. But we are going to continue to battle and work hard. We are going to battle every game.”

Regarding his team’s offensive effort, Higgins tipped his cap to Ellmyer’s diving play, claiming it as the catalyst that jump-started their offense. But he admitted that plays of that type are nothing he and his team are not used to seeing. In the face of the tough schedule, he lauded his team’s heart and their willingness to continue to do battle. Because of their tenacity, Higgins believes his Panthers have the ability to do something special in the district playoffs.

“That was a big-league play. That was one of the better high school plays I’ve seen in a long time,” Higgins said. “They are a very good team and a good baseball school. We play those types of teams; we see them every week. The one thing I’ll say for our team is that you will never see any quit. We go out in the last inning and play like its the first inning. You will never see a letdown with our guys. They love baseball, they continue to work hard, and that’s all you can ask out of them. Because of that, no matter what our record says, I think we still have as good a chance as anyone to win it.”

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