McCarthy Walks Off 8-7 To Return To State Finals

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To be a champion teams must play like champions. When players don the Archbishop McCarthy baseball uniform, they come to understand that they are expected to maintain that standard. Many Mavericks teams have written their chapters in previous seasons over the past few years. In Friday afternoon’s Class 5A state semifinal at Fort Myers’ jetBlue Park, the newest group of Mavericks continued the tradition.

With their backs against the wall to a tough Tampa Robinson squad, Archbishop McCarthy rallied together to add another thrilling chapter to Mavericks lure. McCarthy rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to walk-off with an exciting 8-7 victory. Adan Fernandez delivered the winning hit on a shot to deep left field that drove in Fred Matos, sending the Mavericks (26-5) back to familiar territory in playing for another state championship.

McCarthy will face Mosley in Saturday’s 5A title game, after the Dolphins beat Citrus 5-2 in the other Thursday semifinal to also advance. These same two teams played one another in the 2013 6A championship, the final of McCarthy’s state-record four titles in a row.

With nearly every member gone from the teams that helped McCarthy win four straight championships from 2010 to 2013, a new and young squad made a name for themselves on Friday. After the contest, Mavericks Manager Rich Bielski beamed with pride and appreciation for how his guys rallied together.

The Knights (17-11) jumped out early and held a commanding 6-1 advantage heading into the bottom of the third. While the McCarthy coaches never doubted the team’s ability to come back, they made sure to look the team in the eyes and remind them that champions rise up in those moments. The Mavericks had done it before, and they were reminded not to be surprised to do it again.

“If you don’t know what Maverick baseball is all about, now you know,” Bielski said. “This is what champions do, and it is not out of the ordinary. This is the Mavericks’ time of year, and every championship team we have had ever there has always been this point. This was their point for them, and I’m not surprised that this happened this year with this group. They are hungry and they have already made a name for themselves just by making it this far. We’re not done yet and we’re looking forward to the challenge of seeing another very good team tomorrow.”

Things looked their bleakest after sophomore slugger Alex Toral was robbed of a base hit to start the bottom of the seventh. The first baseman lined a shot to center field, where Robinson’s Darius Autry made an incredible diving catch to record the first out.

Even despite playing with the lead the entire way, Robinson seemed like a team that did not believe it could keep the Mavericks at bay. Meanwhile, McCarthy’s players showed no doubt that this game was theirs for the taking. Even while heading back to the dugout after Autry’s big catch, Toral encouraged his teammates that destiny was still on their side.

“I didn’t expect them to make a mistake; I just felt that we were going to rise up to the occasion,” Toral recalled. “I looked into everybody’s eyes and told them to believe and it is going to happen. I saw in their eyes that they believed. I saw the belief in Coach’s eyes and the chills running down his arms, and it looked like he was envisioning it happening.”

Confidence and faith against all odds helped these Mavericks cement their place in team lore. As each batter stepped into the box to play their part, history began to unfold in their favor.

“Our lineup is stacked one through nine, so we know that regardless of who is up there they have a really good chance of coming through for us,” Ubaldo Lopez said. “Even with one out and our best hitter down, we knew we had a really good chance. We’re a great team together. Our coach always instills in us from day one, ground balls and line drives and the Mavericks win. When the pitcher is on as well as the one we were facing, we knew that as long as we got on top of the ball good things would happen. You put it on the ground and put it in play and good things will happen.”

Senior catcher Jake Anchia followed that game plan with a liner to left field, and then gave way to courtesy-runner AJ Hendricks. Ubaldo worked a walk to reach base for the fourth time on the day, before he was lifted for pinch-runner Christian Demby. Matos then supplied his third hit of the contest on a single to left that loaded the bases, bringing Dylan Bautista to the dish.

One of the few veterans with state-playoff experience, Bautista came through huge. Although he fell behind 0-2 in the count, the senior fought to stay alive and find his pitch. When he saw it coming, Bautista sent a liner to left field that plated two runners and tied things up.

“Coach Bielski kept calming me down during that at bat, and I knew my teammates had confidence in me the entire game,” Bautista said. “They had been picking up my bat, so I knew I had to step up for them. I saw the curveball in and I put my hands through it. Luckily, I got a hit.”

Adan Fernandez had supplied a two-RBI single in the sixth to help make the comeback possible. Now the right fielder was back at the plate with an even bigger opportunity in front of him. just as he has throughout this playoff run, Adan got the job done. Jumping on a 2-0 offering Adan sent the winner to the base of the Green Monster to end the game.

“It was like a regular day; I stayed calm and relaxed,” Adan said. “I know my team is going to back me up no matter what. They are always there and I have faith in them.”

Faith in one another played a huge part in the team maintaining its psyche. After falling in a deep hole at the start, the club got several key contributions that helped lead to the final events unfolding. McCarthy got a run back in the first when Alex Carballo walked, advanced into scoring position on a liner from Anchia, and scored on a throwing error. Anchia added a sac-fly RBI in the third, and Ubaldo followed with an RBI double that cut the deficit in half at 6-3.

“As coaches say, we always battle back and we don’t just stay calm,” Anchia said. “Even one run an inning, we’ll still have seven runs at the end of the game. It’s kind of hard to beat a team that scores seven runs. We knew that if we scored every inning we would still have a chance, and we just battled.”

Bielski pointed to the calming presence provided by the veterans as key to the team’s comeback. Chief among those was Matos, who provided calmness and enthusiastic energy throughout the day. The third baseman had several key defensive plays along the way, cleanly fielding grounders to third with runners in scoring position, and then looking those runners back to their bases before firing the ball to first for some key outs. Matos’ routine execution helped to settle down the defense and allow them all to find their way back to playing McCarthy-style baseball.

“Every play you make kind of calms the team down,” Matos said. “But just make the routine plays and make it easy. It is nothing big, just watching them back and making sure the runner doesn’t go. You make them hesitate and then throw the ball to first.”

Earning the win on the mound was senior right-hander Brian Van Belle, who came on in relief of sophomore starter Daniel Federman in the third inning. Van Belle attacked the Knights and forced them to swing at pitches and put the ball in play. The veteran hurler allowed just one unearned run over the final four-and-a-third innings to make the rally a possibility.

“Coming out of the bullpen the coaches tell us all the time to just throw strikes and good things will happen,” Van Belle said. “So that’s what I did, and luckily my defense backed me up. I knew for a fact that they were going to back me up on defense and that I was going to hold the rope. I held the rope and then they pulled it through, and it was awesome.”

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