Silva Lining As McCarthy Announces 5A Presence

Heritage @ Archbishop Photo Gallery

The Archbishop McCarthy Mavericks have played some memorable games over their four-year state championship run. Friday night was supposed to be the dawn of a new era with the Mavericks moving this year to 5A, and with crosstown rival American Heritage in town all indications pointed to Archbishop having their first serious threat to district dominance in years.

As has been the case during their amazing run, however, the Mavericks were having none of the hype. Archbishop exhibited a little bit of everything that has made them so good in recent years, timely hitting, dominant pitching, stellar defense, and a knack for playing fundamentally flawless baseball. The result was a little bit of the same old story, an Archbishop 5-0 win.

American Heritage came into the game with the better record of the two teams, at 7-0. The Mavericks had one loss on their record to Coral Gables. Ever since the state realignment data was released late last year, all eyes in Broward were on 5A-16, where the two most successful baseball programs of the past decade suddenly found themselves in the same district. Friday night, the crowd of over 300 people arrived early, among them a plethora of Major League college scouts to see the handful of prospects on each team.

“We knew this was going to be a crazy atmosphere,” said Mavericks starting pitcher Brian Gonzalez. “This is what people have been waiting to see. Everyone was excited for this one from way back when the schedule was released.”

The game figured to be a pitcher’s duel, with Gonzalez, a three-time state champion, on the mound for Archbishop, and Patriots ace Louis Beck taking the mound for Heritage.

The Maverick’s Eddie Silva, who was coming off a recent three home run performance versus Cardinal Gibbons, had other ideas. After Gonzalez put down the Patriots one-two-three in the top of the first, Silva connected for a solo home run down the left-field line, giving Archbishop the early lead.

“I’ve been seeing the ball really well,” said Silva. “I went up there looking for a certain pitch, and when I got it, I was lucky enough to get the barrel on it, and it went out.”

From there the pitcher’s duel materialized. Beck settled in and threw three shutout innings, while Gonzalez also found his groove, blanking the Patriots through four. Heritage had threats brewing in both the second and fourth inning, but were unable to capitalize. In the second, with runners on first and second with no outs, Heritage failed to move the runners over when they popped up a bump attempt.

In the fourth, Heritage again found themselves with runners on first and second with one out. Gonzalez was facing his stiffest test of the game, and like most great pitcher’s do when they get into a jam, Gonzalez found a way out when he picked a Patriots runner off second base.

“I’ve played with him basically my whole life, and I played with him this summer,” said Gonzalez, of Dallas Perez, who he picked off. “I know he’s a speedster. I know he likes to get aggressive on the base-paths. I saw him get a little jumpy. I knew if I could get a couple picks and mix up my timing I could get him. Luckily it came at the right time in the game.”

One of the key story lines of the game was Heritage leadoff hitter Brandon Vicens, who was a part of the 2013 Archbishop state champions last season. Vicens transferred to Heritage to play football last fall, and was now facing his former teammates and friends for the first time since the move across town. Gonzalez got the best of Vicens on this night, dialing up several fastballs to retire his former teammate.

“Brandon is a great hitter,” said Gonzalez. “I knew if I could go inside I could get him. We played with him all last year, so we kind of knew his tendencies. I guess tonight he wasn’t on at the plate, and I was able to get the best of him.”

In the fifth, the Mavericks broke the game open by putting up a four spot. An error on a well-placed sacrifice bunt by Ryan Sinzenich opened the door for the big inning. Dylan Bautista made the Patriots pay with a double into the left-center field gap, and after a Michael Gigliotti RBI single, Silva put the finishing touches on the inning with his second home run of the game.

“He’s been doing that for us all year,” said Mavericks Manager Rich Bielski. “And if I can tell you, it couldn’t happen to a better player. He does everything we ask of him. The scouts are out here to see some other guys, but they are starting to take notice of what Eddie can do. He is a smooth fielder and he has worked hard to become a very good hitter, which he is.”

After the Mavericks extended their lead to 5-0, they turned the ball over to Aaron Soto. Another Patriots base-running mistake helped end the sixth with a 4-6 double play, and Soto struck out the side in the seventh to seal the win.

For Archbishop, the message had been sent that they are not going to play second fiddle to anyone in 5A, but as has been the company line throughout this run, Friday was just another night at the park.

“Each year is different, and we just take one game at a time,” said Gonzalez. “It doesn’t matter what past teams have done; this year’s team hasn’t accomplished anything yet. We have to continue to work hard to reach our goals. Tonight was a big win, but we still have areas where we need to get better moving forward, and we are just going to start preparing for the next game.”

Heritage, which was dealt its first loss of the season, also understands that the season is long.

“We did not play well tonight,” said Patriots Manager Bruce Aven. “We’ve been telling these guys that we needed to get better, but our talent has allowed us to get away with some of this type play early this season. Tonight, it caught up to us. We cannot play that type of baseball against a team like that and expect to win. We’ll go back and look at some things that happened tonight, and we’ll go back to practice and hopefully fix these things. If we don’t, we are going to get more results like we did tonight.”

It does not get much easier the next time out for Heritage, who hosts district foe Cardinal Gibbons (6-3) next Thursday.

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