Basto’s Triple Lifts Defending National Champion Mavericks In Opener

Perfection as defined by Merriam-Webster is “an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence.” For two straight seasons, the Archbishop McCarthy baseball team has reached the perfection level. With the bar being set no lower than perfection, it is easy to see why Tuesday’s season opening 6-2 win over North Broward Prep had both coaches and players disappointed.

“I wasn’t happy with the way we played,” said head coach Rich Bielski. “We’ve got a long way to go, we’ve got a lot of things to fix, and I think we could have played much better.”

Senior shortstop Nick Basto helped the Mavericks erase a 1-0, third-inning deficit when he drove a three-run triple into the left-center-field gap. Basto’s blast was followed by a Nick Travieso RBI single. Later in the inning, sophomore Ryan Sinzenich drove in the last of five Archbishop runs in the inning with a single to right. The offensive explosion lasted for only one inning, but it was enough to secure victory. Basto spoke afterward about his game-changing triple.

“I felt like our team was a little down at that time and nobody was really hitting,” said Basto. “The pitcher we were facing was a great pitcher, had a great curve ball, good fastball. The first pitch was a curve ball, and I knew the next pitch he was going to throw me a fastball, and I was sitting on it.”

North Broward Prep knows a thing or two about the quest for perfection as well. The Eagles advanced to the state semifinals last season, and this year, with nine players graduating from that team, nobody, including coach Brian Campbell, knew what to expect.

What Campbell saw Monday was similar to what he has seen in the first two games of the preseason. The Eagles defense made four errors for the third straight game, and the offense had trouble getting runners across the plate once they were on base. Facing Archbishop ace Andre Martinez, NBP had the bases loaded in the first and the first two batters on in the third but came away with only two runs in those innings.

Although the offense sputtered, Campbell knew that was to be expected against a pitching staff like the Mavericks. What he wasn’t pleased with was the defensive laps.

“That’s a good team over there,” said Campbell. “Obviously, we didn’t take advantage of opportunities, but they (Archbishop) had a lot to do with that. I was expecting a little more from my team after that big inning they had, looking for someone to stop the bleeding. That inning took the wind out of us, which bothers me…we’re going to leave our bats at home tomorrow and work strictly on our defense. We can’t win making four errors a game.

One bright spot for the Eagles was lead-off hitter Kevin Fagan. The designated hitter on this night, Fagan was 3-for-4 and scored both NBP runs. Fagan is one of the few returners from last season’s team, and he is being counted on by Campbell to lead the Eagles’ offense.

“He’s our motor that gets us going…For us to win, he’s going to have to keep on doing that,” Campbell said. “He is a senior, been with us four years now. As he goes, sometimes we go, so I like having him up there at the top of the lineup to get us started.”

Despite the win, Archbishop managed just six hits on the night, five of which came in the third inning. Throughout the game, the Mavericks made little mistakes, but the type of mistakes that the team has become accustomed to not making. Bielski held a 20-minute meeting with his team after the game, and the message was clear: They cannot win a third consecutive state title without cleaning up the little mistakes.

“We left the bases loaded twice and two runners on in another inning,” Bielski said. “We had a ton of guys left on base. Can’t happen. We had two senior pitchers that I think, didn’t hold runners on very well. We got abused on the bases…They’re all little things, they’re not things that can’t be fixed. They’re little things that need to be fixed before we play big games, go-home games at the end of the year. Little things like that can beat you if you don’t fix them.”

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