Ceremony Monday at Liberty will honor late assistant coach
Mark Benetsky loved to talk to everybody as a Liberty High baseball assistant and made friends everywhere the Hurricanes played, including on the opposing bench.
Two of his best friends from other teams were Easton coaches Carm LaDuca and Greg Hess.
That’s why when Easton and Liberty get together Monday afternoon at Liberty, it’s the perfect time to remember Benetsky, who died in February at the age of 75.
A pregame ceremony will feature Benetsky’s daughter, Megan, who will throw out the first pitch. Both teams will wear camouflage uniforms in honor of Benetsky’s military service in the Vietnam War. The ceremony is supposed to start about 4:30 p.m., after the solar eclipse, and the game will start approximately 5 p.m.
“We’re going to the hang the American flag with the U.S. flag and we’re going to have the national anthem and ‘Amazing Grace’ performed by the Grenadier Band bagpipers,” Liberty coach Andy Pitsilos said. “Our band director [Allen Frank] is a really good guy and he was worked with us on this. It figures to be an emotional day and a special one.”
Pitsilos said that while Benetsky had friends across the league, “he was as close to Carm and Greg as anyone, so that’s why we picked the Easton date for our memorial game.”
The Easton game is part of a big week for the Hurricanes, the defending league and district champs who made it to the state finals in 2022 and to the PIAA 6A quarterfinals last year.
Liberty will play rival Freedom at 6 p.m. Thursday at DeSales University. DeSales is where the league and district playoffs will be held in May.
“I played for Tim Neiman [the DeSales baseball coach] and we like to get our kids down for a game under the lights in case we have a night game down there during the playoffs,” Pitsilos said. “We also like to have a game on turf just in case we’re playing at East Stroudsburg University again. We arranged the DeSales game when it looked like we weren’t going to be playing this year at Coca-Cola Park.”
He said that, unlike in recent years, the EPC didn’t schedule games at the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, but some teams later decided to do so. Liberty and Freedom played April 1 at Coca-Cola Park, with Freedom’s winning 1-0.
The DeSales game will, in essence, replace the game that had been scheduled for the Freemansburg A.A. under the lights.
Liberty will enter the week at 3-2, and Pitsilos is looking forward to the schedule’s picking up after the rain caused a drought of games for more than a week.
“I’d like to get in four games per week,” he said. “Two games a week, like we’ve had, is definitely not enough. With all of the postponements, we’re going to have a few weeks coming up where we are playing three or four games per week and we like that. The kids would rather play games than practice.”
Did you know?
After just a few weeks of play, no Eastern Pennsylvania Conference team is undefeated. Only Saucon Valley remains unscathed in the Colonial League. In all of District 11, the Panthers and Blue Mountain are the only remaining unbeaten teams. The Panthers and Eagles were both district champs last year.
Stroudsburg outlasted Palmerton 9-8 in a nonleague game. The Mounties were able to win despite six errors. They led 6-3, but gave up three runs in the top of the seventh to force extra innings and then rallied from an 8-6 deficit with three in the bottom of the eighth. Anthony Knight had three hits and drove in four runs.
Player of the week
Caden Deegan, Bethlehem Catholic
Bethlehem Catholic is off to a 3-1 start and one of the reasons why is junior Caden Deegan. He is batting .308 with eight RBIs and two doubles. In a 14-4 win over Pocono Mountain West, he had a double and knocked in five runs. In a 4-2 victory over Archbishop Carroll, he had two hits, including a double, and knocked in three runs.
He has formed a potent 1-2 punch in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in the batting order with Brayden Rader, who is also hitting .308.
“Those two are a big part of our offense,” coach Matt Corsi said. “They are both coming up with big hits at big times. Rader is being patient at the plate and letting things come to him. With Deegan hitting behind, that’s working out well. They have a huge presence in our lineup and make everyone around them better.”
Deegan, who had a big year as a pitcher as a freshman in 2022, struggled through an injury last year.
“He’s coming off elbow surgery in the offseason, so we are bringing him along slowly on the mound,” Corsi said. “He has a big role hitting behind Rader. He had a big game against Archbishop Carroll and really smoked the ball. We’re looking for more big games from him the rest of the season.”
Baseball Top 10
Rank, Team, Record, Last week, Next game
1., Liberty, 3-2, 1, host Easton Monday
2., Saucon Valley, 3-0, 2, host Wilson Tuesday
3., Parkland, 3-1, 2, at ES South Monday
4., Becahi, 3-1, 4, host Freedom Monday
5., Poc. Mt. East, 3-2, 5, host Whitehall Monday
6., Stroudsburg, 3-1, 9, host Emmaus Monday
7., Northampton, 4-2, NR, at PM West Monday
8., Nazareth, 2-2, 7, at Dieruff Monday
9., Salisbury, 5-1, 10, host Catty Monday
10., Pen Argyl, 6-2, host Palisades Tuesday
Dropped: Bangor (4-2). Watchlist: Easton (2-1), Emmaus (3-4), Freedom (3-3), Lehighton (5-2), Northwestern Lehigh (3-3) Records thru Saturday’s games.