McArthur’s Henning Gains Revenge In Win Over Piper

The last time Tyler Henning took the mound against Piper, the McArthur pitcher threw a masterpiece of a game. After eight innings of shutout ball in a game last season, Henning was pulled by Head Coach Daniel Baugh. The Mustangs went on to lose that game.

This year, Henning made sure that he would not place his team’s fate in another pitcher’s hand. The Mustangs ace threw a complete game and led McArthur to a 3-1 win over district rival Piper on Thursday evening.

The game was tight all the way through, with McArthur scoring one in the third and Piper answering to tie the game in the fourth. In the bottom of the fourth, the Mustangs scored the two runs that would prove to be the difference in this district match up.

Clean-up hitter Javier Aguilar began the inning with a single. Aguilar then came around to score on Kody Swackhammer’s RBI single. After a wild pitch advanced Swackhammer to third, Michael Bosco drove in the second run of the inning, giving McArthur a 3-1 lead.

From there, it was Henning that stole the show. Piper threatened in the fifth, when Alen Arslenyan singled to lead-off the inning. Down two runs, Colby Costanzo then doubled to left, but the first out of the inning was made on the relay throw from left to home. Henning then struck out Bryan Rath and Ronnie Bailey to end the threat.

It was the off-speed stuff that got Henning through the innings and the other Bengals threats.

“I was riding the curve ball,” said Henning. “That was the key. It kept them off balance.”

As for McArthur’s win, and Henning’s performance, Head Coach Daniel Baugh pointed to a loss last season against Piper as the motivating factor for Henning and his teammates.

“His performance went back to last year,” said Baugh. “He pitched eight scoreless against them last year, and I pulled him. We ended up losing that game by one. He was kind of bitter about that, so he took that focus into this game, and it was kind of a redemption thing for him. He pitched a great game.”

McArthur jumped to the top of the District 11-6A standings with the win, tied with South Broward at 2-0. With the new format in which all district teams must play twice, a fact not lost on Piper Head Coach Chris Costanzo.

“We need to be able to execute. We need to play under adversity, two runs in high school is nothing,” said Costanzo, referring to the two run deficit the Bengals faced after the fourth inning. “We need to be able to bounce back, and not put our heads down. The good thing about our districts now is we get to play everybody twice.”

The Bengals and Mustangs will meet again on March 29th at Piper.

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