Gibbons Rallies To Defeat Pompano

A little rain in the afternoon was not enough to keep Cardinal Gibbons from heading down the street Wednesday night to take on the Pompano Beach in an inter-district match-up.

Both teams put on offensive clinics tallying up 18 total hits in the ball game, but it was Cardinal Gibbons who ruled supreme with the 6-5 victory. Solid pitching from key seniors, timely hits, and flawless defense now put the Chiefs at 2-2 in what is one of the toughest districts in Broward County.

Starting on the mound for the home Golden Tornadoes was sophomore C.J Roth, and his opponent, junior Nathan Pawelczyk. Gibbons was first to draw blood on Roth. A second inning, two out rally started by a Karl Hirsch double set the pace for the Chiefs. A passed ball sent Hirsh to third and center-fielder Justin Lara drove a line-drive to left field putting the Chiefs up 1-0.

“I’ve been struggling at the plate recently, and my approach was to just put the ball in play,” said Lara of his at bat. “I’m a quick runner and I knew if I stayed on top of the ball, I’d have a chance to put myself on base and drive runners in.”

Pompano answered back quickly in the bottom of the inning. A single by Christian Perez led the inning off. A hit-by-pitch and sac-bunt followed and had runners on second and third for Justin Proano, who hit a ground-ball far enough up the middle, it allowed Perez to score tying the game at one. Pompano was not finished just yet as a walk and base hit by Bobby Aseere put Pompano up 2-1 at the end of two.

The third inning proved to be the biggest for the Chiefs. With a runner on first, a single by Colin Durkin and an RBI single from Chiefs catcher Drew Hanke gave the Chiefs a 3-2 lead. Another clutch single by Karl Hirsch with two outs, followed by a walk, and aggressive base running, brought the Chiefs to a 4-1 lead heading into the 4th. Two out hits seemed to be the theme for the Chief’s offense tonight scoring two of their key runs with two outs.

“Two-out hits win ball games,” said Chiefs manager Jason Hamilton. “We had probably three to four two strike, two out RBIs and that was important for us. What won for us tonight was our two-out hitting.”

Pompano came out in the bottom of the 4th with a lead-off walk by Stept, who then stole second. A base-hit by Garrett Hiott brought up Thomas Fengler with two men on, and he delivered with a triple, driving in two runs. Fengler later scored and the Tornadoes led through four, 5-4. Senior relief-pitchers Craig Olsen and Chris Williams threw three innings of shut-out baseball for the Chiefs, ensuring no more runs for Pompano.

“Those are two seniors who are supposed to step up and win baseball games for us and they did. Craig is a situational guy that had a great off-season and we needed zeros and he gave us zeros,” said Hamilton of his relievers. “Chris is our best and we wanted him to come in and shutdown the last inning for us and he delivered.”

Gibbons quickly answered in the 5th, a single by Justin Lara and walk brought up senior Dalton Jugovic who drove both runs in with a single to left-center. The Chiefs took a 6-5 lead and that was all the needed. In a game where both teams battled hard, Pompano Manager Ryan Combs had some positive things to say about the loss.

“We did well offensively and defensively. Two out hits win games, and we had a couple of them. Unfortunately so did Gibbons,” said Tornadoes manager Ryan Combs. “We’ve still got a lot of room to improve, a lot of baseball to go, and a tough district to do it in.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!