Mavericks Stunned For First Loss, 5-4 To Monsignor Pace
The Mavericks pounded out ten hits, but were held scoreless over the final five innings.
In each of the past two seasons Archbishop McCarthy had held rival Monsignor Pace in check with two big shutout victories.
But on Wednesday night, the host Spartans finally got some payback.
Monsignor Pace capitalized on a pair of errors to walk-off with a 5-4 victory in the bottom of the eighth inning, in a game played at Monsignor Pace in Opa-locka.
For the Mavericks (11-1), it is their first loss of the season, while also snapping a 25-game winning streak.
“To come back and battle this way and never say die, it was a pretty fun and exciting game to be a part of,” said Spartans Manager Tom Duffin. “The only thing you can do is relate this one to a heavyweight championship bout, like in boxing. They swung and hit, we swung and hit, as far as landing blows. It was a tough one for anybody to lose.”
The two programs have always enjoyed this friendly rivalry, which has grown to pit two of the state’s best teams against one another every season.
The Spartans (10-3-1) have won six state titles overall, the last coming in 2006, and the team also went to the state Final Four last season. Meanwhile the Mavericks have won three state titles in a row.
“We’ve dominated the past few years, but tonight they came to play,” Mavericks Manager Rich Bielski said. “Tom always does a good job of getting his team ready, but we gave it away with our errors. Every error that we made cost us. That’s what it came down to and I feel we really beat ourselves tonight.”
Anthony De La Cruz led off the bottom of the eighth inning by crushing the ball deep to right field and then racing around the bases to third after the ball got away from the fielder. Leroy Garcia connected to drive the ball to the outfield, which allowed De La Cruz to cross home and end it when the fielder was unable to make the play.
Shortstop Eddie Silva was 2-for-3 with a run in the loss.
“We felt we outplayed them, except for the errors,” Bielski admitted. “We hit the ball all over the park. It was just one of those nights where we were hitting the ball hard but right at somebody, too.”
The Mavericks’ bats opened the game on fire, as the longball worked its magic to pull them out front early on.
Brandon Vicens connected on a high fastball and drove it deep over the right field fence for a solo home run with two outs in the top of the first inning, and catcher Micheal Hernandez put the bat on a ball that just kept carrying until it was out of the yard for a two-run home run in the top of the second that put the Mavericks up 3-2.
Vicens was 4-for-4 and scored twice as McCarthy pounded out 10 hits in all.
After falling behind in the opening frame, the Spartans answered back in their first at bats in the bottom half of the first.
David Palenzuela lined a two-out single to left field, and Brandon Gomez followed by crushing the ball 360 feet over the left field fence for a two-run home run.
But that was the full extent of the damage allowed by Mavericks lefty starter Brian Gonzalez, who went four innings and recorded four strikeouts before giving way to right-hander Andres Nunez to start the fifth inning.
“We like to do that; we like to go righty to lefty or lefty to righty to mix it up,” Bielski said. “They’ve been seeing one type of pitcher all along and then we mix it up on them. It was a great pitching performance by both of our pitchers.
Nunez took the loss despite allowing only one earned run in three innings.
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