After winning the Big 8 Player of the Year in 2019 and securing three state playoff wins, there were largely two things that Joey Berini has never done in his four years as an Orange Panther.
Hit a grand slam and win the Big 8 Conference championship.
After Tuesday night, the former has been put to bed. The latter is still a work in progress.
With two out in the third inning against East Chapel Hill, Berini skied the first pitch over the centerfield wall with the bases juiced. There was a touch of anger in Berini’s swing. In his previous at-bat in the 2nd inning with runners at the corners, Berini grounded out to East pitcher Matthew Kupec.
“I was pretty mad,” Berini said.
From that point forward, Orange (2-2, 1-0 in the Big 8 Conference) cruised past East 9-4 at Panther Field, but Berini wouldn’t have had a chance to hit the grand slam if it wasn’t for Ethan Guentensberger.
With two out in the third, Guentensberger stepped up with Will Walker at third and Bruce Clark at second. Guentensberger, who had reached base eight times in the opening week of the season without the benefit of a base hit, poked a floater over the head of second baseman Zach Wernoski into left field to give Orange a 2-1 lead.
Tucker Miller replaced Guentensberger as a courtesy runner and stole second as Ryan Hench drew a walk. Centerfielder Jaren Sikes went opposite field down the left field line to score Miller. After freshman Jackson Berini earned his first varsity base hit to load the bases, Berini launched his grand slam.
East (1-2, 0-1) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning with its traditional station-to-station baseball. Catcher Ben Buchman singled to right field, stole second base, took third on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Moyer and scored off an RBI groundout by 1st baseman Will Briley.
Senior Cooper Hench, making his second straight start, earned the win. He threw four innings, giving up three hits, two walks and an earned run. Hench struck out two and remained in the game at third base after Marco Velasquez replaced him in the fifth.
Guentensberger came up with another clutch hit in the sixth. Walker, who has hit safely in Orange’s first four games, singled to left field. Clark was hit by a pitch, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice hit by Connor Funk. Guentensberger lined a first-pitch fastball to the right center gap, the deepest part of the park, to score Walker and Funk, who came in from first.
Guentensberger finished 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs. Freshman Ryan Hench went 3-for-3 with a run scored. Clark, in only his third start, was 2-for-3 with a run scored.
Orange’s 13 hits was a season-high.
East, the defending Big 8 Conference champions, added two runs in the seventh. Wernoski and Buchman led off the inning with singles while Moyer reached on an error to load the bases. Briley knocked in Wernoski on a fielder’s choice, while Kupec hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate Buchman.
Orange will travel to East Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon at 4.