Beniamino, Francis Pace Pirates in Opening Win
By Scoops Crocetti
Pirates News Staff
When Jeff Francis stepped to the plate in the third inning, he could feel it. He knew what the pitcher was going to throw. He thought to himself, “I’m going to mash this one.” And then. Mash.
Pirates lead.
The long two-run double by Francis, part of a five-run third, helped break the game open for the Prohibition Pirates of the Parkway, winners in their Opening Day matchup Sunday against the Randolph Blues, 8-3.
Backed by a solid start by pitcher Gino Beniamino, the Pirates coasted to their first win ever against the Randolph Blues.
“They hanged ‘em, we banged ‘em,” said Manager Jake Walter, invoking one of last year’s catchphrases. “Or is it, ‘They hung ‘em, we bung ‘em?’”
Walter is now 3-0 as manager of the Pirates on Opening Day.
The Pirates began the day selflessly, with outfielder Chris Bettano literally giving the shirt off his back to center fielder Evan Adair. Bettano, though, followed up his unselfish act by flexing in front of a young toddler behind the plate, scaring him off.
One of the other few low points of the day came in the form of a minor dugout scuffle.
Rookie James Sharkey was beaming about his new bat.
“I can’t wait to christen that thing,” Sharkey said.
Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting crack – the Pirates of the dugout looked out on the field to see that EH Joe Marra had broken Sharkey’s bat on a lineout to third.
Marra came back to the dugout unapologetic.
“That bat sucks, rookie,” Marra told Sharkey.
Sharkey, a star at shortstop Sunday afternoon, requested Marra fork over the dough for a new piece of lumber.
“I’ll give you about a buck, because that’s how much that bat was worth,” Marra said. “Go Yankees.”
The Pirates were able to move past the disagreement and pick up their first runs of the season in the third, sending 10 men to the plate in the inning, totally screwing up the scorecard.
Marra, with a different bat, knocked in the first run of the season with a single.
Then Max “Humphrey” Bogaert came up to the plate with the bases loaded and valiantly sacrificed his body for a run, getting nailed in the right foot — a difficult task.
“That’s an RBI, right?” Bogaert asked the official scorer. “Just want to make sure you mark that down.” He then proceeded to first base.
Francis followed with a two-run double.
The Pirates scored the rest of their runs in the fifth, getting two on a long double by Francis, the great Pirates slugger, who advanced to third o a missed cutoff throw.
“I often hear people tell me that I’m the greatest player of all time and I usually just say to myself, ‘Probably,’” Francis said. “But I can’t hold back anymore — I really am the greatest player of all time.”
Beniamino only ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth, when the Blues picked up three runs on three hits, including a three-run homerun.
“Dinks and dunks,” Beniamino said.
Beniamino, now 2-1 for the Pirates on Opening Day, gave up five hits over his six innings, fanning four.
Jeff “Jeff Francis” Francis shut the door with a scoreless seventh.
The day featured some nice plays in the field behind the pitchers, including a running catch on a deep fly by Adair, a lunging grab on a liner by second baseman Saad “I’m not Indian” Khalid and a number of blocks behind the plate by Walter.
The biggest crowd for a Pirates game in two years (12 people) watched the hometown team make quick work of the Blues. The Pirates next take on the Irish at Chelsea High School on Thursday.
Amalie Benjamin and Jeff Francis contributed to this report.
