Heritage Wins Selective Recruiting Invitational Title

All week American Heritage Manager Bruce Aven and his coaches had kept their pitching staff on edge.

Playing in the gauntlet run of intense games during the Selective Recruiting/Sir Pizza Invitational, the Patriots’ pitchers were constantly reshuffled and forced into spot action as needed.

But on Saturday night, they all enjoyed the rewards.

Right-handed starter Shaun Anderson helped pave the way as American Heritage earned the tournament title with a 6-1 victory over Douglas, in a championship held at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables.

Anderson improved to 7-1 while allowing one earned run over five innings of work, striking out six while giving up five hits and a walk.

The performance came as expected for Aven, who was relieved the team still had its ace in line and available to pitch this game after playing three games in four days this week just to qualify for the title contest.

“Coming into this tournament, we didn’t have a lot of arms,” Aven admitted. “So we had to have guys perform. We couldn’t have one guy have one bad night. We needed our defense to play to our pitchers so they didn’t have to throw extra outs. We only had one bad inning the whole tournament.”

The Patriots (16-2) overcame a 5-1 deficit against defending tournament champion Westminster Christian earlier in the week, before winning by mercy-rule in their other two contests to save the team four valuable innings worth of pitching.

“It was a tough tournament, just because of the uncertainty of how much pitching we would have left for this game,” Aven said. “Our guys came out and absolutely gave us a chance to win every game. They threw strikes and our defense was outstanding. We were fortunate to go five innings twice; the hitting saved us four innings we didn’t have to come up with.”

Designated hitter Mike Deeb gave the Patriots all the runs they would need in the bottom of the second inning with a double to left field that drove in Chase Reyes and Danny Zardon to put them up for good at 2-1.

Deeb was named Tournament MVP, after finishing with 11 RBIs in their four games.

“I go in with no ego and just try to move guys over and bring in runs. That’s my job,” said Deeb, who was 2-for-3 in the championship. “Luckily with all the reps and what the coaches have taught me I’ve been able to get it done throughout the tournament. It feels great ultimately to win as a team, but to bring home individual success makes my family proud and I’m proud of myself for it.”

The Patriots won the tournament for the second time in three years, the last coming when Douglas Manager Todd Fitz-Gerald was still at the helm.

Defeat is never a size that fits well, and even as Fitz-Gerald would have enjoyed winning the tournament twice with two different teams, he would not let the team lower their heads after the week they put in just to get to this point.

The Eagles (13-3) twice came back for victories, the second coming in a walk-off win over Miami Ferguson that propelled them into the championship.

“They had a great week at this tournament,” said Fitz-Gerald, who reminded his team that they were one out of 32 teams that got to play in the championship. “We’re not going to play any better team then we’ve seen in this tournament, and they showed a lot of resilience and a lot of character. When you’re in a game of this magnitude, you’ve got to play your best because you’re playing the best.”

Both teams responded to the large stakes, as every starter on both squads reached base during the game.

With such strength matching strength, ultimately it would come down to which team was able to capitalize on its chances.

“We didn’t get a couple of hits when we needed them, and I made a bonehead coaching mistake running a kid home trying to make something happen,” Fitz-Gerald admitted.

This came in the top of the fourth inning, after Dominic DiCaprio drilled a shot deep to left field and the Eagles manager waved Josh Koebel around third base only to watch as he was gunned down at the plate on a perfect throw from Patriots left fielder Magglio Ordonez.

Not to be lost amidst the result was the performance of Eagles freshman Jesus Luzardo, who got the start against the vaunted Patriots lineup in a game of high stakes and prime time.

“I ran a freshman out there, and he did great for five innings,” Fitz-Gerald said. “That was good for him to pitch in this atmosphere and get his feet wet because he’s not going to pitch on a bigger stage. He handled himself well, and I was proud of him for that.”

Luzardo (4-3) threw 58 of his 88 pitches for strikes and battled his way into the sixth inning, before falling into trouble after the first two batters reached.

C.J. Chatham was hit by a pitch, and Dallas Perez followed with a single up the middle. Chatham made his way to third on an outside pitch that pulled the catcher off balance and put runners on the corners.

Heritage executed a perfect hit-and-run that chased Luzardo from the game, as Perez broke from first base as Ordonez drilled a shot deep to the right-center field gap that not only scored Chatham easily from third but also brought Perez all the way around the bases from first.

It was a play that was run almost to perfection, except that Ordonez was caught off the bases trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Heritage added another run later in the inning when Brandon Diaz singled through the left side of the infield to drive in David Villar to close out the scoring.

Villar had reached base on an error that extended the inning, and moved into scoring position on a single from Jon Felicie.

Felicie also had an RBI double that drove in Villar in the second inning, to finish 2-for-3 on the day.

Douglas opened up with a 1-0 lead in their half of the first frame, as Eagles leadoff hitter KJ Mayo sent the first offering he saw from the starter Anderson right back up the middle for a leadoff single. Daniel Ruiz deposited a blooper into shallow left field for an RBI double.

But after laboring for 25 pitches in the first inning, Anderson settled down to need only 37 more to get through his final four innings of work.

“Good pitching beats good hitting any time,” said Aven. “We knew right now we’re comfortable bringing in any of our pitchers.”

The Patriots stretched their winning streak to six games, while snapping the Eagles’ streak at six games as well.

But in the end both squads knew how much it had benefited them competing in this massive “March Madness” Spring Break Tournament.

“It really brings us a lot of momentum into our season going forward,” said Deeb. “This will keep us rolling as we move forward and get into the playoffs. This was a great tournament, and it shows how big a part baseball is in South Florida. There’s a lot of talent in this area, and it shows.”

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