Calvary Christian Tops Somerset Academy, 3-1

Two very good district rivals met on Tuesday night at the Broward College baseball field. Somerset Academy took the role of home team as they hosted the Calvary Christian Academy Eagles in a tight baseball game. Calvary Christian pulled away and scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to win the District 4A-14 contest, 3-1. The victory improves Calvary (3-3) to 3-0 in the tough district.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, Calvary struck. Josh Lane was able to draw a walk, then reached to third base on a throwing error before scoring the decisive run on a wild pitch. Calvary added an insurance run with a walk to starting pitcher Andrew Gottfried and a towering, RBI double to deep center field by Tommy Taborda.

“This was a great team win,” Gottfried said. “I could not have done it without them behind me on every pitch. It was a fifteen-man win. It wasn’t one guy; it was all of us.”

In a game where hits were few and runs were rare, these two teams battled back and forth throughout. The lack of offense did not stop this game from having excitement and some baseball plays that are not often seen.

Calvary Christian started the first inning when leadoff batter Josh Lane made it to first base on a passed ball third strike. Lane moved to third on an error that put Gottfried on base, and Taborda followed that with a base hit to short left field. With the bases loaded, the Eagles cracked the scoreboard on a wild pitch.

Tommy Orr was then hit by a pitch, and with the bases still loaded it looked like a big inning for Calvary. Somerset starting pitcher Brandon Valentin got a pop out, and the Panthers defense got a double play on a fly out followed by a strong throw by Derek Cartaya to stop the rally with an inning-ending double play.

It was back and forth for the next three innings as Somerset got runners on base, but were thwarted twice by excellent 4-6-3 double plays by the Calvary infield. Calvary had chances to score in the second and fourth innings, but left runners stranded at third in both frames.

The fifth inning brought more excitement. In the top of the inning, with Josh Lane on first after a base hit bunt, Tommy Taborda walked. They both advanced on a swinging strike wild pitch. Taborda was caught off of second base when he thought a foul ball was called. Calvary could not capitalize on Lane’s presence on third and the score remained at 1-0.

After having been no-hit for the first four innings, Somerset (3-3, 1-3 4A-14) broke through with a soft roller to second base that Jack Khawly beat out. Kenny Moreno-Costa followed that with a shot down the right field line for a double. After a strikeout by the Eagle’s starting pitcher Gottfried, right-handed hitter Brandon Lubow squared around for a suicide-squeeze bunt. Gottfried delivered a high fastball and Lubow’s bunt went right back to Gottfried in the air for an easy 1-5 double play.

“Its funny; we practice that play everyday, so we knew what to do,” Gottfried said.

Somerset Academy tied the score in the bottom of the sixth. Following a base hit by Cartaya, he then stole second, made it to third on an errant throw, and hustled home on a wild pitch.

“He’s a great player, he comes to play and he takes it upon himself to lead the team.” Manager Onel Garcia spoke about Derek Cartaya. “Valentin pitched well today. I was happy with his performance. We threw very well today.”

Trailing by a pair and down to its final swings, Somerset was not done. In the bottom of the seventh, Jack Khawly hit a blast to center field for a double, and moved to third base on a wild pitch. With the tying run at the plate and only one out, Eagles Manager Gregg Mucerino went with lefty Noah Yager out of the bullpen. Yager got the next two outs for the save.

“It was a crazy game. We played excellent defense and those double plays allowed us to get deeper into our pitch count,” Mucerino said. “We are doing well. We are three-and-zero in our district and we are improving.”

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