BROOKSVILLE – A comfortable lead completely erased, Springstead teetered on the brink of a painful county loss Thursday night.
Host Central had rallied from an early 5-0 deficit, knotting the score at 6-all in the bottom of the sixth inning. But Stephen Bienstock and Luke Laferty had pivotal RBI singles in a four-run seventh, and the Eagles pulled out a 10-6 victory.
“There’s not a feeling like it,” Bienstock said. “Pulling a win out like that, that’s the best.”
“Definitely a little nerve-racking having them come back,” Laferty said. “But I think we definitely have a good enough team to pull ourselves together, come back and score some runs up on the board, go ahead again. That’s definitely what we need.”
It was a strong performance at the plate from two players who have put together a solid season. Both went 3-for-4 and reached base five times in the game. Laferty drove in four runs, while Bienstock plated a pair.
“I just kind of had tunnel vision,” Bienstock said. “Sometimes I’m a little scatterbrain, but tonight, tonight I was in it. I was really paying attention, and I think that helped a lot.”
“I think I was just seeing the ball well,” Laferty said. “Seeing the ball well, putting it in play. Doing what as hitters what we need to do for the team, to score runs and get people on base.”
Bienstock, a senior third baseman, is hitting .358 with two doubles and nine RBI. Laferty, a junior catcher, has a .340 average, two doubles, a home run and a team-leading 15 RBI.
Laferty had a two-run single in the third inning against Central (8-6), as the Eagles sent 10 batters to plate and scored four times. Johnny Oliveira, who had three hits of his own in the game, and Dakota Blevens also drove in runs with singles in the frame. Oliveira added a RBI double in the fourth.
The Bears strung together six hits in a four-run bottom of the fourth, including a two-run double by Justin Chevalier and run-scoring single by Ian Peacock.
Bienstock tacked on what at the time was an insurance run with a base hit in the fifth, but in the sixth Central pulled within one on Trevor Adler’s RBI single and tied it on a wild pitch.
With two on and one out in the seventh, Bienstock looped a single into center to drive in the go-ahead run, and another Eagle scored as the Bears made a failed attempt to throw out Bienstock advancing to second.
“Honestly, I took a really bad hack the first time,” Bienstock said. “But I came back, kind of got myself together and I was just waiting fastball. He actually threw an off-speed and then I waited back, hit it up the middle.”
Three batters later, Laferty lifted a single to left to push two across, and Springstead had an ample cushion to finish off the win.
“We’ve been doing that all year. That’s the kind of team we have, just getting it done when we need to. That’s what it’s about,” Springstead head coach Shawn Laferty said. “That’s big. They’re (Bienstock and Luke Laferty) in that spot, they’ve been hitting the ball well. Both of them have been hitting over .300. When you’re there and you’re hitting the ball, you get those chances, that’s what you’ve got to do. If you’re going to win these games, that’s what you’ve got to do.
“This is what you want, games like this. Because at the end, when you get into district, everyone’s going to throw their one (starting pitcher). You’ve got to be able to win these tight games when there’s nothing but pressure. It’s good for morale, it’s good for the school, good for everybody.”
It has certainly been a good season for the Eagles, who improved to 12-3 overall, and sit 10-0 atop the Class 6A, District 6 standings.
“It couldn’t be better,” Bienstock said. “We’re all acting like a team on and off the field, and it just couldn’t be better.”
“I think we have a good chemistry together,” Luke Laferty said. “We just kind of fit well. Like the pieces to a puzzle. We connect well.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.