Northeast Walks Off On Dade Christian In 4Him Opener

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Shea Horn envisioned himself connecting for the winning hit as he stepped to the plate in the biggest moment of the night. In a tie ball game with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, Horn took a couple of quick breaths and shook the jitters off. He then stepped in and put the bat on the ball to drive it where he wanted it.

The ball dropped a few feet onto the infield grass to allow Ralph Morel to race home from third base on the suicide-squeeze that Horn dropped so perfectly down. With that Northeast walked-off with a 5-4 victory over Dade Christian in the opening day of the 4 Him Classic Spring Tournament, played at Northeast High Monday night.

It was a gutsy call in a big moment, but one that the team was prepared to use if the opportunity arose. Prior to the game Horn had discussed just such a scenario with his manager, Kevin Carney. The team had practiced it a little bit of late, and their first baseman had done a nice job of executing with his chances in practice.

When the call was made with the game on the line, Horn took confidence to the plate with him. He was not pleased with his first few at bats, and he knew he could get this job done. All he could think of was to get it down, and once he did that all he could feel was elation.

“We needed it against this good team. They are very good and they stayed in it. We just stayed together and played as a team tonight,” said Horn. “The last game we did not get many hits, but tonight we came out and executed. When you practice it and get hits you will put runs on the board.”

When Morel crossed the plate with the winning run, he also earned himself his first victory of the season in the process. The Hurricanes ace went the distance, battling through some big moments against a tough and gritty opponent. The Crusaders (8-8) put runners on in nearly every inning, but Morel made the right pitches and the Hurricanes (4-7) made the plays to avoid any big innings.

“That was Ralph’s best performance of the spring, and he’s right where we want,” said Carney. “Ralph really bore down and it would have been disappointing to lose this game tonight. But I still saw enough good things to build off of either way. We are just getting experience in a few different areas. I thought everybody played really well and it was a good ball game.”

Morel was the great equalizer, attacking the Crusaders lineup and working ahead in the count. The senior allowed three walks and scattered six hits, surviving a tough first inning to buckle down and deliver a great performance. The right-hander tallied 13 strikeouts on the night and was also a driving force to spark his club, as he also reached base all four trips to the plate, scoring three runs and stealing two bases.

“It was a big game today, and my team was behind me the whole way, so I had the confidence,” Morel said. “When I got down they brought me back up, and that’s the sort of thing you’re supposed to do. We had a little slump earlier in the year so we needed this pick up. I see better things now and hopefully Wednesday we come out with the same intensity and get a win and take it to the championship, and hopefully win the spring break championship.”

With the Hurricanes ace on the hill, Dade Christian countered with one of their own in Anthony Munoz. The right-hander also pitched into the seventh inning, delivering an equally strong performance to keep his club in the game all the way. Munoz struck out four while allowing only three earned runs.

“It was a great game with two good pitchers on the mound. A couple of plays made the difference in the game, but it was two workhorses on the mound and they did a great job on both sides of the ball,” said Crusaders Manager Reggie Rodriguez. “They put a few bunts down and we played some good defense. We had a couple of errors, but under the situation they did a good job defensively. We would like to win, but hopefully tomorrow we can come out here and look a bit sharper and make the routine plays. That’s what decides games.”

Carney admits that his team has not been hitting like they need to be, and they have worked on manufacturing runs. On Monday they made that work, dropping down bunts and working to move runners over. The Crusaders were challenged defensively on many big moments as Northeast focused on fundamental baseball. The Hurricanes were disciplined at the plate and did not surrender a strikeout until the sixth.

“We’ve been talking about putting the ball in play. If you strike out and don’t put the ball in play, nothing good can happen,” said Carney. “In a tournament in Spring Break you always want to show well at home, and we knew Dade Christian was a good team. We’ve played some tough teams, and we’ve played the big boys, so our kids are starting to get used to playing in that environment.”

That experience showed in the seventh. Morel and Robert Robinson both walked with one out, and Carlos Perez stayed back to line a single through the left side of the defense to load the bags up for Horn. What followed brought the Hurricanes their first walk-off victory since a similar result a few years ago against Chaminade-Madonna.

After falling behind 3-0 in the first, Northeast clawed their way back to jump ahead when Morel drove in Isiah Blackwell with an RBI single in the fourth. Morel doubled leading off the first, advanced to third on a single from Robinson and scored when Perez ground out to the right side of the infield. Two frames later Morel helped them tie things up when he reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice flyout from Perez, and Robinson singled and scored on an error.

Yet while the offense did the job, it was the pitching and defense that made the biggest difference. David Diaz sparked a seventh-inning rally for the Crusaders when he led off by lining the first pitch he saw into right field for a single. Philip Edwards reached on an error to follow, putting the go-ahead run on second base with no outs. With the infield defense drawn in, the Hurricanes shortstop Robinson made a great stab to snare an infield liner, holding the runners and recording a big out to first.

“That’s a big confidence-booster,” said Morel. “When he made that play I felt confident. I felt in the zone after he made that play. We’ve got a lot of freshmen who are stepping up, like Robbie and Matt Harper at second base. They are stepping up this year.”

An infield error brought Diaz home with the tying run, but the ‘Canes buckled down to prevent things from getting any worse. Morel took matters into his own hands, making a great move to pick a runner off before securing the third out on a big swinging strikeout on a full count.

“We did a good job and fought back and tied the game up 4-4. We had runners in scoring position but we just couldn’t come up with the big hit,” said Coach Rodriguez. “We couldn’t put the ball in play when we needed to. But again, their pitcher did a great job today. He went seven innings and was great, and our hats off to him.”

Dade Christian opened the game with a scoring burst in the first, all with two outs. Nik Haber walked and Paul McIntosh rolled a single up the middle, then gave way to David Seijo as a courtesy runner. Alex Perera then drove a shot to the left field corner to score Haber, and Garrett Sheffield followed by beating an infield single to first to score Seijo. Sheffield collided with the first baseman on the play, and Perera alertly came home amidst the distraction.

Both McIntosh and Perera were 2-for-2 with a walk to pace the Crusaders offense.

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