Farrar plates six as Berkeley Prep buries Sickles
Lucas Farrar (5, right) flexes for his Berkeley Prep teammates before touching the plate on his fourth-inning grand slam.
By Chuck Frye, Senior Staff Writer
TAMPA – With runners on the corners and two out in the bottom of the first inning, Lucas Farrar had a shot to get host Berkeley Prep on the board first on Thursday. It didn’t quite work out.
“In my first at-bat, I got beat on that sinker,” Farrar said of a nasty strikeout pitch from Sickles starter Ben Durda.
But the Buccaneers senior wasn’t going to let it happen again, and his next trip to the plate jump-started the entire team’s offense, leading to a 12-0 blowout ended by mercy rule after 4½ innings.
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Sickles second baseman Charlie Martz shows the umpire the ball but missed the tag on Berkeley’s Parker Mitzel on his first-inning hustle double.
In the third, leading by two runs and following consecutive singles from Jett Walters, Rice commit Parker Mitzel, and Holy Cross commit Carson Binder (scoring Walters), Farrar was not going to let an off-speed pitch get the better of him again.
“I was going back up there looking for the sinker,” the junior said. “I didn’t get it but I got a slider, something I could drive to the outfield and do my job.”
Sickles senior submariner Ben Durda was touched up for five runs and seven hits in two-plus innings.
Shooting a laser-like double up the right-centerfield gap scored a pair and led to Berkeley Prep (7-4) sending 20 batters to the plate over the last two innings. It also led to bigger and better things for Farrar.
With Walters (base hit), Mitzel (walk), and Binder (single) juicing the sacks to start the fourth, Farrar stepped to the plate confidently to face reliever Zack Dial.
“I knew he couldn’t beat me with a fastball,” and Farrar was right, launching a moon shot far over the leftfield fence for a grand slam.
“Lucas is one of the best players in the country for his class,” Bucs head coach Richie Warren said of the USF commit. “After kind of getting out of his approach (the first time up), he reeled it back in. He obviously made a huge adjustment and the results showed (Thursday). He had a special night.”
Berkeley rightfielder Jett Walters covered a lot of ground to track down Emilio Salgado’s fly ball and end the third inning.
And Farrar, who also turned in a couple of stellar defensive plays, wasn’t alone as literally everyone in the Berkeley lineup contributed.
Josh Herrmann soars with the rest of his Berkeley teammates to complete his home run celebration.
Wake Forest commit Josh Herrmann followed Farrar with a two-run bomb in the fourth inning. Walters and Binder (adding an RBI) had three singles and scored two runs apiece. Wofford commit Ben O’Brien had two singles and a walk. Mitzel added a single, double, and a free pass. Even No. 9 batter J.D. Haughey drove in two runs with a single and a ground out.
“A lot of guys are clicking,” Warren said after the Buccaneers’ 15-hit onslaught Thursday. “It’s nice when there’s more than a handful that are doing it.”
Usually Berkeley Prep’s starting third baseman, senior George Cook stepped to the mound and worked three shutout innings to earn the win against Sickles.
Moving from third base to the mound, senior starting pitcher George Cook (three shutout innings of one-hit, one-walk ball with two strikeouts) effectively hit his pitch count limit before making way for freshman Owen Schmitt (two innings, three hits, one K) to finish up the victory.
“We were just trying to stretch (George) out, get him to the 40-to-50 pitch range,” Warren said. “He didn’t want to come out (even after being hit on the calf by a third-inning line drive) but it was something that was pre-determined.
“And Owen threw 21 of 27 pitches for strikes, trying to initiate contact and allow our defense to make plays. We just feel that if we’re not beating ourselves with walks and (we’re playing good defense), we have a chance to win games.”
Owen Schmitt, another of head coach Richie Warren’s freshman pitching proteges, threw two shutout innings to close out a win over Sickles.
For Sickles, who defeated Leto and Plant the prior two days while scoring 76 runs in its last five, all victories, Thursday was a rare misstep.
“We just didn’t play well,” Gryphons head coach Eric Luksis said. “Bottom line: (Berkeley) kicked our butts.”
Sickles pitcher Zack Dial (9, left) and first baseman Lee Melamut (13) tangle trying to snag Ben O’Brien’s fourth-inning pop-up. Dial ended up coming away with the ball.
Having used six different starters and 12 different arms over the first four weeks, Luksis is still trying to find athletes to fill his squad’s pitching roles. That Sickles has a 7-3 record is credited to an offense hitting around .325 in the early going.
“We’ve swung it really well,” Luksis said of a plate attack paced so far by sophomore Lee Melamut (.500, 1 homer and 11 RBI), senior Hillsborough CC commit Emilio Salgado (.364), and junior Nick Grannis (.450, team-best 16 RBI). “Scoring a lot of runs makes it easier to pitch, and up until (Thursday) the offense was really going. It was not that night (at Berkeley).”
Berkeley Prep senior DH Carson Binder slides across home plate to complete Lucas Farrar’s third-inning, two-run double. Binder went 3-for-3 with two runs scored in the victory over Sickles.
The Bucs return to action Saturday afternoon, wrapping up their seven-game homestand against nationally-ranked Bishop Verot. Sickles will look to turn things around when it sends junior Peter Tsikouris to the bump Tuesday against visiting Newsome.
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Berkeley Prep 12
#10 Sickles 0 – five innings
S 000|00x|x – |0|4|1
B 014|7xx|x – |12|14|1
W – Cook (1-0); L – Durda
2B – Mitzel, Farrar (B); HR – Farrar, Herrmann (B). Records – S (7-3); B (7-4).
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Bucs third baseman Mason Warren found the handle on this second-inning grounder but Sickles’ Nick Grannis beat the throw to reach on an error.
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Berkeley’s Jett Walters (12) beat the tag of Gryphons second baseman Charlie Martz for a third-inning stolen base.
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Senior and Wofford commit Ben O’Brien had a single and a walk, scoring a run.
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Bucs junior Lucas Farrar exhibits full arm extension as he drives the ball over the leftfield fence for a fourth-inning grand slam.
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Lucas Farrar joins his teammates in a celebratory leap.
