Red Raiders Shine With Besse's Bat, Liimatainen's Arm

Casey Stengel once said that "good pitching will always stop good hitting."

Well, what if a baseball team has both?

Displaying continued success with its bats en route to an 8-1 finale, the Barnstable High School Red Raiders this afternoon chewed through a host of Durfee High School pitchers, led by leadoff man Luke Besse (2-4, 2 RBI) and hits from Timmy Biliouris (2B, 2 RBI), Danny Walsh, Dylan Morris (RBI) and Everett Walsh. A handful of successful delayed steals with men on first and third also credited the Red Raiders with at least three of their eight runs on the day.

Combined with those factors and a rock-solid outing from senior righty Pete Liimatainen, the Red and White saw its record climb to 7-1 on the season, less than 24 hours after a 16-strikeout, 9-inning complete game win over Taunton from senior righty Willie Nastasi (3-0).

Liimatainen upped his record to 2-0 on the season in just his second start of the 2012 campaign, turning in five innings of work with seven strikeouts, three walks and only two hits. Junior lefty James Burke got his second appearance in two innings of relief for Liimatainen in the sixth and seventh frames with three Ks and two walks and no runs allowed.

Barnstable heads to rival Bridgewater-Raynham tomorrow for its second Old Colony League tilt with lanky righty Keegan Dellacona likely the starter on the hill.

To date, Nastasi is 3-0 and Liimatainen and Dellacona are both 2-0 on the season while senior southpaw Everett Walsh has yet to be needed from the bullpen. Junior righty closer Dan Holzman and Burke have seen the most work out of the pen with senior righty George Bent also getting action.

To his credit, senior Denny Beynor has been earning his stripes behind the dish in every inning since game two and he's handled the above mentioned staff with aplomb.