Heritage Takes 5A-16 Title With Win Over McCarthy
The Patriots captured the 5A-16 crown.
When American Heritage and Archbishop McCarthy get together on the diamond, there are certain things that are a given. The intensity will be there, and the game usually turns into an instant classic. That was the case again Friday night as the Patriots and Mavericks tussled for the 5A-16 championship.
Over the past two seasons, McCarthy has owned the rivalry, going 4-0 versus Heritage. The two regular season games this year have both been one-run affairs, and on Friday, the Patriots had the look of a team that was sick of coming up on the short end of the games. Heritage scored three runs in the third, and then piled on six more throughout the game to capture the district title, 9-2, over the Mavericks.
“These guys have a lot of fight in them,” said Heritage Manager Bruce Aven. “They are coachable, they listen, and they were right there in almost every one of our games. They deserve this district championship and they should enjoy it.”
Starting pitchers Baily Mantilla of Heritage and Brian Van Belle from McCarthy cruised through the first two innings. In the third, Van Belle ran into the first jam of the night.
Joe Perez led off the inning with a double, but was erased on the bases when Maverick first baseman Alex Toral fielded a sacrifice bunt attempt and fired to third to snag Perez. Sebastian Enciso then walked, and Luis Almanzar singled in Julio Cortez with the Patriots’ first run.
Freshman Baily Montilla went five strong for Heritage.
After Chase Reyes flew out to center, Alex Kushner came through with one of the big hits of the game, a two-out, two-RBI single to left-center, extending the lead to 3-0. Reliever Roger Garcia was then able to limit the damage by striking out Jacob Pino to end the inning.
“I liked what I saw of our offense tonight,” said Aven. “They just kept coming, and they needed to. You can’t hold a one or two-run lead against a team like them over there and expect to win. They can come back, so it was good to see us keep putting up runs after we got the lead.”
In the fourth, McCarthy demonstrated that comeback mentality. Jake Ancia hit a one-out single. Pinch-runner AJ Hendricks moved to third on a groundout and scored on a base hit. Dylan Bautista followed with a two-out walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Fred Matos single up the middle. The lead was suddenly cut to 3-2.
The score stayed that way until the sixth, when Heritage added the insurance runs they needed to ice the game. The big blow came off the bat of former Maverick player Justin Lamazares’ bat, a two-out, two-run single, extending the lead to 7-2. Cortez also had an RBI single in the inning, the second in which the Patriots batted around.
“We’ve been so close all year against these guys,” said Lamazares. “This is a big confidence boost for us, and will help us moving forward. Our goal this season was a state championship, but tonight we reached one of our goals, which was to win the district.”
While the offense cruised most of the night, it was Heritage’s two-headed monster on the mound that silenced the McCarthy bats. While the Mavericks used five pitchers on the night, Heritage received five innings of two-run ball from the freshman, Mantilla.
The Patriots celebrate their title.
“We thought we knew what we had in him early in the year, but we left him down playing with the JV, to see what we had up here, and to give him some innings at the JV level,” said Aven. “Since he has come up, he’s been very good for us. He pitched a great game tonight, and the reality is I don’t even know if he understood where he was, in a district championship game. That shows a lot of poise.”
American Heritage will now host Suncoast on Thursday, while McCarthy will travel to face Palm Bay. With both teams hoping to advance past those games, they understand the other may be waiting the following week.
“I told the guys tonight, if we had to lose one of these games, I’ll take tonight over next week,” said Archbishop Manager Rich Bielski. “I am chalking this one up to Heritage playing a great game. It’s hard to beat a good team like that three times, and tonight they earned the district championship.”
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