Heritage Loses Game But Pays Tribute to Fallen Teammate, Daniel Perez

The American Heritage Patriots baseball team took the field with heavy hearts on Saturday evening in their first home game of the season. The Patriots have dedicated this season to Daniel Perez, a teammate that died in a tragic ATV accident last summer, and the team paid tribute to Perez before their game against North Broward Prep.

Perez’ parents were given a framed American Heritage jersey, signed by Daniel’s teammates in the pregame ceremony. Perez’ father then threw out the first pitch. The moment was one that brought together coaches, players, and fans, regardless of team affiliation.

“Any time you lose a player to something tragic, it’s hard to put into words,” said Heritage Head Coach Todd Fitz-Gerald. “and we just wanted to do something special for family tonight.”

After the pregame ceremony, Heritage and North Broward Prep locked up in a classic battle of two of the top teams in the county. NBP came out on the winning end, defeating the Patriots 7-4.

The offense of the Eagles continued to impress, scoring seven runs on eleven hits. Justin Bard stole the show at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a home run, two runs, and two RBIs. Bard went back to basics and the approach paid off.

“I struggled last game,” said Bard. “Tonight I was trying to not hit home runs, just hit line drives, and get on base for my team.”

NBP built a 6-1 lead in the game by scoring four runs in the fourth inning. At one point in the inning the Eagles had five consecutive hits, the last of which drove in two runs off the bat of Anthony Valeo. NBP tacked on a run in the fifth on the Bard home run, and another in the seventh on a Bard single.

On the mound for the Eagles, Sarkis Ohanian worked out of a jam in the sixth when Heritage’s Brandon Diaz and Mike Marlin led off the inning with singles off of Kevin Fagan. Ohanian then relieved Fagan, and proceeded to give up three more hits in the inning, but was able to strike out clean-up hitter Derrick Fritz to end the threat.

In the end, it was NBP’s offense that allowed the Eagles to be just a little bit better than Heritage.

“All the kids have really good approaches,” said Head Coach, Brian Campbell. “We stress situational hitting every day in practice. We don’t just turn the light switch. We work it all week long. The timely hitting tonight was great.”

On the other side of the field, Coach Fitz-Gerald was wondering what would have been had his hitters had not struck out fifteen times in the game. Still, despite the loss, Fitz-Gerald understood that this is a long journey, and he gave credit to the Eagles.

“We were hoping we would come out and play a little more inspired, but I give them credit. They hit well, they pitched well, and they got more timely hits than we did.”

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