American Heritage Tops Cardinal Gibbons In Walk-Off Win

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The American Heritage Patriots moved into the 5A-16 championship in dramatic fashion with a 4-3 walk-off win in the eighth inning in a semifinal Wednesday afternoon. As the home team playing at district host Archbishop McCarthy’s field, American Heritage used the hustle and power of senior Chase Reyes to win.

With the score tied at three in the bottom of the eighth, Reyes led off with a base hit to deep shortstop. Reyes was moved over to second on a well-placed sacrifice bunt by Justin Lamazares. This brought senior Alec Kushner to the plate, and the senior right fielder laced a shot to left-center field and Reyes sprinted home with the clinching run.

“Reyes started off slow at the plate this season,” Patriots Manager Bruce Aven said of Reyes, who finished with three hits and three RBIs. “He started hitting after a few games. He has kicked in and hasn’t stopped since.”

The Patriots (18-7) will face Archbishop McCarthy (22-4) in Thursday’s championship at 7 PM.

The game Wednesday went as was expected of these two longtime rivals. In the previous two meetings this season, the teams traded one-run victories to set up Wednesday’s rubber match. After a scoreless first inning, Cardinal Gibbons (18-8) broke open with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Second baseman Josh Shrouder led off with a drive into center field that was misplayed for a two-base error. Shrouder was sacrificed to third base by Sean Otto, and Jarrett Hall drew a walk and stole second base. With two outs, senior Austin Morrow lofted a single down the right-field line to bring in the first two Chiefs’ runs.

Cardinal Gibbons starting pitcher Nathan Pawelczyk went seven and-a-third innings, striking out seven and walking one. In the fourth, he put down all three batters he faced on strikeouts.

With the score 2-0, American Heritage started the fifth inning with a hard ground ball to third base by Joe Perez, who ended up safe on first. After Pawelczyk got two outs, senior Luis Almanzar laced a shot back up the middle. Pawelczyk deflected it, but all runners were safe. Chase Reyes strode to the plate and with the crowd of parents and supporters rooting, he lofted a drive over the left-field wall for a three-run home run.

With Patriots reliever Patrick Mitchell on the mound in the sixth inning, the Chiefs got a run to tie the score. Ty Crittenberger smacked a base hit to center field and came around to score on a double by senior Austin Morrow, who led the Chiefs with two hits and three RBIs.

Both teams put runners on in the seventh inning but were unable to score, and the game went into extra innings. Aven brought Joe Perez in to pitch for American Heritage in the top of the eighth inning and he held the Chiefs in check.

“This was a hard-fought game,” Aven said. “The last four times we’ve played Gibbons have been tight, tough ball games.”

Cardinal Gibbons Manager Jason Hamilton said his team gave all it could against the Patriots.

“Our kids fought hard today,” Hamilton said. “Every time we play these guys, it is a one-run game. If you make a mistake, you pay. But that’s baseball. We are disappointed, but I give my team credit and I credit American Heritage also.”

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