Puerta’s Blast Helps Heritage Make Statement With 10-3 Win Over Springs

The American Heritage Patriots, to hear new coach Bruce Aven tell it, have an offense that has been struggling early in the season. If the type of performance the Patriots bats put on late in their 10-3 win over Coral Springs is considered struggling, the rest of the county may be in for long days when they face the Patriots.

It is true that the Heritage hitters were struggling early against Coral Springs starter Brett Schneider. The senior, who is coming off surgery, was masterful through four innings, giving up only two hits and striking out six. His performance allowed the Colts to take an early lead in a matchup of two programs that many believe are among the top five in the county this season.

Coral Springs did not waste time getting on the board against Patriots starter Domenick Mancini, a transfer from Cypress Bay. Dylan Ebel led off the game with a base hit and moved to second on a Jordan Gleicher walk. The base-runners then proceeded to steal second and third, and Ebel scored on a ground out by Alan Sharkey.

The Colts extended their lead to 3-0 in the second with the help of two Patriots errors. The game stayed the same into the fifth, with Schneider cruising and Mancini settling into a rhythm.

Schneider appeared headed for another easy inning, giving up a lead-off base hit to David Villar before striking out the next two Heritage hitters. That is when the trouble began for the Colts starter. Patriots lead-off hitter Gabby Aurrecoechea singled, followed by an RBI bad-hop single from shortstop Brandon Lopez. With Schneider coming off surgery, the Colts coaching staff decided he had reached his pitch limit and went to reliever Johnny Ortiz.

Zach Collins drew a walk, and Ortiz then induced a ground ball that should have ended the inning. An error on the play allowed Heritage to tie the score at three and bring to the plate Esteban Puerta, who hit 13 home runs last season.

Puerta proceeded to blast a three-run homer to left-center, and when the top of the fifth was complete, the Patriots had exploded for six runs, turning a 3-0 deficit into a 6-3 lead.

“I knew if we kept it close, that we’d have a big inning and come back and win,” winning pitcher Mancini said. “I know going out there with our offense that if I hold it under four or five runs, we should have a great chance to win.”

When asked about the game-changing, three-run homer from Puerta, Mancini had nothing but praise for his current and future teammate in college.

“E.P., he’s going to be my FIU teammate, and, he’s always coming up with the big hit.”

Heritage put a close game out of reach in the top of the seventh when they tacked on four additional runs. The inning was keyed by back-to-back doubles by Danny Zardon and Puerta, along with an RBI single by Villar. What started out as a close game had turned into a rout, but the final score of 10-3 was not indicative of the competitiveness of the game.

When asked about the six-run fifth by the Patriots, Colts head coach Frank Bumbales acknowledged this game could have easily gone in his team’s favor.

“We were right there in the beginning of the game, and we had them down,” Colts head coach Frank Bumbales said, “We had two outs and they had a man on first, and then a bloop hit, a bad hop, and an error. Then the wheels fell off.”

For the Patriots, Mancini impressed head coach Bruce Aven with the way he battled after struggling to start the game. The senior ended the day with five innings pitched, five strikeouts and only one walk. He gave up only an unearned run during the outing.

“Domenick’s been outstanding. He pounded the zone. We needed him to do what he did,” Aven said. “He faced some quality hitters tonight, and he challenged them guys that are going to be big time players over there in that dugout. That’s what I liked. I told him ‘Go give him your best stuff against their best stuff, and let’s see what you got.’ He did his job tonight, even when our defense let him down a little bit.”

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