Wednesday night’s baseball game between visiting Buchholz and Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) featured a pair of future college pitchers.
Jacksonville University commit J.J. Gardner of Buchholz and Daytona State College signee Andrew McWilliams of Bishop Kenny allowed a combined five baserunners through the first five innings.
But in the sixth, the visiting Bobcats broke through with a solo home run by sophomore Aidan Kastensmidt for a 1-0 victory.
“Credit their guy, credit JJ, I mean he went out there and really competed in the strike zone,” said Buchholz coach Ron Brooks. “We were cruising (1:26 game time). We’d like to make it longer and score more runs but at the end of the day their guy was doing well, our guy was doing well, and the pitcher in me kind of likes the 1-0 kind of ballgame.”
Gardner (1-0) set the tone early by striking out six straight over the first three innings and he retired the first 11 batters he faced.
“I was feeling really good,” he said. “A few of my other starts haven’t been working so well for me so today was really big. I feel my tempo was really good. I was throwing a lot of strikes and I have a great defense behind me, so it was just easy. I was just up there throwing strikes and letting them work behind me.”
McWilliams had six strikeouts and had retired the side in order for a second time in the top of the fifth inning. But leading off the top of the sixth, Kastensmidt crushed a fastball over the left field fence to give the Bobcats (5-2) the only run they would need.
“It was a first pitch fastball and I jumped on it,” he said.
It was the first varsity home run for the sophomore, who also hit one during the fall.
“It was a big swing, a really big swing,” Brooks said “Any time you’re late in the ballgame, it’s tied up, no offenses are really rolling, I don’t think people realize how big that one run is, and that one run was huge. He comes in after a great performance by JJ, competes in the zone, gets some big outs and we get a 1-0 win against a really good baseball team.”
Gardner (5.1 IP, two hits, one walk, seven strikeouts) allowed a one-out double to Owen Delaney in the bottom of the sixth and, following a strikeout, was relieved by Kastensmidt (1.2 IP, one hit, one walk, two strikeouts) who kept the Crusaders (5-2) off the scoreboard.
“It’s always easier to pitch with a lead,” Kastensmidt said. “It helped our pitcher (Gardner), he threw great, and it also helped me come in and pitch great because we had a lead.”
Bishop Kenny threatened again in the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff double by Troy Ancayan.
After a sacrifice bunt by McWilliams to move the runner to third, Kastensmidt struck out Cole Dennis and got Joshmar Carbonell to fly out to center to end the game.
“He’s been a guy that has come in some real high leverage situations,” Brooks said. “That was J.J.’s second start, and we didn’t want to run his pitch count up too high, and it wasn’t high (in the 60s). We’re back to the lineup that third time, runner in scoring position, a really good time to bring Aidan in because he throws a lot of strikes, competes, and he got it done for us tonight with a save.”
Buchholz will look to finish spring break with a 3-0 mark when the Bobcats travel to Fernandina Beach (3-3) on Thursday. The first pitch is at 6:30 p.m.
“That will be a big test for us,” Brooks said. “Any time you’re on the third day of a spring break, three days in a row, it will test you a little bit. It will test us to see where we are mentally, and test some other guys, guys are going to get a shot to get out there and see what they can do, and let’s hope we can 3-0.”