If it weren't for the pandemic, this milestone would have been reached much earlier, but with the 2020 season cut short (26 games) and the 2021 season truncated due to COVID protocols, it took until game 24 in a 26-game season for Park University Gilbert head coach Kelly Stinnett to get his 100th win in his collegiate coaching career.  The milestone came via a 12-6 win in game one of the Buccaneers double header with Benedictine Mesa.  The Bucs fell in the second game 9-4 to split the double dip.

In the milestone win, the Bucs received solid pitching performance from starter Luke Richards and reliever Zachary Swanson who picked up the win with 3 ½ innings of work.  Adrian Gamez and Connor Barton closed things out.

At the plate, Frank Racioppo had a landmark day.  Racioppo who started the first game of the series on the mound Friday night, went 3-4 with four RBI's via a triple and two home runs.  The first multi home run game in Bucs history.

Racioppo's three-hit game was one of five Bucs to have multiple hits for the game.  The Buccaneers had a total of 15 hits for the contest with every starter getting at least one knock.

The game was tied at two before the Bucs broke away with seven runs against Benedictine starter Malik Binns in the fifth. With one out, the Bucs rattled off five hits and a walk to chase Binns.  Then on the second pitch, he saw from reliever Jackson Shepard Racioppo launched the first of his two home runs over the right field fence to finish off the scoring. This was the first collegiate home run in Racioppo's career.

Then in the seventh, Benedictine added three runs before Bryce Beck  hit his third home run of the year in the bottom of the seventh off Shepard before Racioppo followed with his second home run of the day to extend the lead to six which turned out to be the final margin of victory for the Bucs.

Game two saw the Buc bats silenced by Benedictine starter Evan Appenzeller who held the Bucs to one run and four hits over seven innings as the Bucs fell behind 5-1.  The Redhawks touched up Bucs starter Aaron de Groot (3-2) for five runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Bucs closer Diego Bustillos threw 2 1/3 innings and was unlucky to give up the runs he did.  He got Redhawk second baseman Mike Avilucea to fly out to left with two outs in the eighth with two runners on, but Diego Bejarano never saw the ball in the dusk sky and the ball fell harmlessly while both Redhawk runners never stopped running and both scored. Avilucea then scored on a single by left field Josh Hernandez.  So Bustillos who came into the game with a 0.87 ERA ended up with three earned runs on his record which never should have been there.

Those three runs turned out to be important insurance runs as Park Gilbert posted three runs over the last two innings against the Redhawk bullpen which would have applied a lot of pressure if they were at five runs instead of nine.

While the Bucs only managed four hits, they reached via walk seven times and left nine runners on base.

With the split, the Redhawks (27-12, 13-5)  win the weekend conference series, 2-1. The Bucs (13-12, 10-5) finish the conference season 10-5 which places them in third place behind Benedictine and Antelope Valley.  As a probationary NAIA school, the Bucs are not eligible for the conference tournament.

These two teams will meet in one last non-conference game tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. at Indian School Park.