Carroll’s No-Hitter Gets Highlands 4 Him Championship

A game that ended with good health, solid performances, and great pitching was followed by a postgame prayer and celebrations by both schools. The Calvary Christian Eagles hosted their third annual 4 Him spring break tournament this week to promote faith, devotion and friendly competition. The host Eagles found themselves in Thursday’s championship against Highlands Christian, a team whom they defeated 12 days ago.

Highlands Mitchell Carroll and Calvary’s Tommy Taborda put a show on the mound and under the lights at Northeast High. Due to the weather earlier in the week, the game was forced to move from Calvary to Northeast for a night game and neutral site.

The tournament’s Best Pitcher Award winner Carroll threw a no-hitter, struck out nine and walked one in Highlands 5-0 championship win. Carroll was lights out from start to finish, and only faced three batters over the minimum 27. Big games on big stages sometimes tend to frighten high school players, but Carroll showed his maturity and focus in the big moment.

“Mitchell Carroll threw an absolute gem tonight. His stuff was excellent and it always can be,” said Highlands Manager Bruce Charlebois. “The biggest thing tonight was he is growing in his presence on the mound and he is maturing in the area of body language and reaction to failure. That really is the big one for us; if he can continue to grow in that area he is going to be excellent. He was great tonight for us.”

Carroll was effective in every way a pitcher needed to be, working inside and out, up and down and able to keep hitters off balance the entire night.

“Coming off a rough district loss against Westminster it was a big win for us, and it gives us momentum into districts,” said Carroll. “My goal was not to throw a walk tonight, which I did in the last inning. I just wanted to locate the ball and throw strikes tonight.”

During the first two innings, Carroll was perfect, striking out two. In the third Calvary’s Winn Allen hit a dribbler and hustled down the line reaching on a bad throw that the first baseman was unable to dig out of the dirt. Carroll enjoyed the next few batters from the stretch and went one, two, three.

“It’s difficult, in a 0-0 game you have to think the first person to give up a run that’s it, and I didn’t want to,” said Carroll.

Counterpart Tommy Taborda was nothing shy of great himself. Taborda kept Highlands off the scoreboard for most of the night, trying to give his team a chance at winning their own tournament. Taborda threw six innings, struck out seven, walked two and allowed one run on six hits.

“It’s tough; it was good pitching tonight. I know him. Mitchell Carroll is a great guy; I used to play with him, and he pitched a great game,” said Taborda. “Its difficult sometimes when we don’t make a few plays or get a couple of hits, but sometimes it happens. My job was to throw strikes and get them out, and I tried to do that. I gave it my 100% tonight.”

The Knights scattered a few hits through the first five innings but Taborda was able to work himself out of any sudden trouble. It wasn’t until the sixth that Highlands finally broke through. Tournament Most Valuable Player Quinsley Balentien doubled down the third base line with two outs to spark a rally. Saul Velez capitalized on their opportunity and drove Balentina in on a single up the middle, giving Highlands a 1-0 lead.

Highlands added four more in the seventh with another RBI and run from Balentien. Balentien won his first MVP award with most of his contributions coming from his bat this week. In the tournament he hit an even .500, had seven RBIs and three doubles in three games.

Calvary Manager Gregg Mucerino wants to go back to the board and figure out what they’re not doing right offensively. Despite a great pitching performance from his starter, his team seemed to “fall apart at the end” and have a meltdown in the seventh.

“I don’t know, we have to get back to work and put a couple together. We’re not putting things together,” Mucerino said. “We still have four district games left, if we can scratch and claw a little bit, I think its anyone’s district. We’ve proven that. We have six one-run loses and four in extra innings. Winners find a way to get it done and we have to do that coming down the stretch.”

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