It took a while for a 2014 to be placed directly above the sign from the 1961 State Championship, the first baseball title the Benedictine Cadets won.
Winning that third game over Greater Atlanta Christian School, 7-2, after a two and a half hour rain delay was really special to Benedictine Head Coach Kevin Farmer.
Farmer, who played on the same field, graduated from Benedictine in 1992. Playing in the Chain Organization, he went on to the University of Georgia, got a degree in psychology, and came back to Savannah and started coaching baseball across town at Calvary Day School. His Cavaliers baseball team became one of the best teams in Class A, winning state titles in 2005 and 2007. Two years after former Calvary Day Head Football Coach Danny Britt made the move to Benedictine to become head football coach and athletic director in 2011, Farmer came back home.
“These are exciting times at BC. We have young men that compete in GHSA sports, and they are challenged academically. These young men have an opportunity to learn about service to their country through JROTC and the importance and strength of faith through a strong Catholic education. To be able to bring this state championship home to the BC community, the alumni, and the fans is a great thing,” Farmer said.
Tradition is not simply a buzzword for current Cadets and alumni; it is a way of life. Benedictine men bleed maroon and white, the schools colors. Current Cadets certainly respect the paths of those who came before them. The country was just entering John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier as a group of fresh-faced, buzz-cut Cadets won their first state title in 1961. Charlie Moore coached that championship team, and on Memorial Day in 2014, Moore’s grandsons freshman Phillip Moore and senior Clay Moore were on the Cadets 2014 championship team. Phillip’s other grandfather, Charlie Russo, played on the 1961 state championship team. Player Brad Stewart’s grandfather is Jim Walsh, Sr., former head football coach and athletic director. Walsh made the Cadets one of the most dominant teams in Georgia from the 1960s through the 1980s, sending several players to Division I schools and the NFL.
2013 was Farmer’s first season as the Benedictine skipper. The Cadets finished in the Final Four, losing to the Lovett School.Because the Cadets made it to the Final Four the previous season, Farmer knew that the 2014 team had the ability to win a state championship, but they would have to become more focused and work harder. “At the end of last season, I knew we could be good enough, but we just had to really adopt a blue collar attitude and came to work every day. We had to have strict, focused practices. We also got involved in with some local charities and Col. La Rossa, our senior military instructor, helped us get hooked up with the Sixth Brigade at Hunter AAF, and we turned them over to them. They wore their practice shirts, and we issued them camouflage pants, and they went thru a complete obstacle course. It helped showed us that we are going to hit obstacles, but we just have to work through them together and we would be fine,” Farmer said.
Benedictine is a small school with only 400 males, so everyone plays most the sports in addition to being a member of the Corps of Cadets and taking a very challenging academic schedule. Those multisport athletes are one of the assets that the school has. A bulk of the Cadet baseball players had been a part of the resurgence of the Cadet football program that lost in the state semifinals against Lamar County. “We have a lot of players that play more than one sport. Junior Brad Stewart plays and excels in football, basketball, and baseball. Stevie Powers who pitched for us also is the quarterback on the football team. Senior John Solitario played three sports and is going to Stanford in the fall. BC offers young men [the opportunity] to be the best on the field and in the classroom,” Farmer said.
Benedictine plays in one of the better AA baseball regions with Metter, Jeff Davis, and Toombs County among others. Once the 2014 campaign got started, Farmer started to see his players elevating their play, and hard, disciplined practices were a visible benefit. The selfless attitude that had energized the Cadets to a region title was evident in the first rounds of the state tournament as they defeated strong Lamar County and Fitzgerald teams. Benedictine on the bottom left hand of the GHSA Class AA bracket knew what was coming.
On the 150th anniversary of Sherman’s March to the Sea, the Cadets had to fend off three Atlanta schools in a row. Farmer’s squad conquered the Lovett School, the team who knocked them out in 2013, and then swept Wesleyan which earned Farmer his 300th victory. Greater Atlanta Christian would meet them on the Benedictine campus to determine the Class AA State Championship. GAC grabbed the first game, but the Cadets battled back and forced game three on Memorial Day.
It wasn’t just the other teams burning up I-16 to try and best the Cadets; the players had to stay focused during the final rounds of the AA state tournament through final exams, prom, and even graduation.
“We got to game three, and then hit the rain delay. But I we needed to play this game today. The game was tied 2-2 early because we made some base running errors, but we also were forcing their pitcher into a higher pitch count. We had to have a big inning, and we did in the sixth inning. Brad Stewart gave us the lead with a home run, and then we added a sac fly and then some more insurance runs in the seventh for the win,” Farmer said.
Senior shortstop Mike Huggins, who was a three-sport athlete, will go on to play baseball at Darton State College. Junior pitcher Al Pesto has a verbal commitment to Duke University. Benedictine was the most-represented school at the Best of Preps banquet where sophomore pitcher Chipper Wiley was selected as Baseball Player of the Year. Stewart also won the Ashley Dearing award from the Savannah Sports Hall of Fame Committee.
“I have always been a student of the game. The game changes, and you want to understand those changes. I want to be able to give my players every resource I can so that they can be successful. I have been fortunate enough to surround myself with assistants that love the game of baseball and to help players have that same love for the game and not just to be great baseball players but great young men. This is so special to be able to bring a title back to the school that I played with [which has] such a supportive group of school administration, fans, and the entire BC community,” Farmer said.
CL-SF-6.14-Benedictinestatechamps
Cadets grab first baseball title since 1961
By John Wood
