Talan Holliday Gem Leads Heritage Back To States

Talan Holiday fired a one-hit shutout and Lucas Ramirez homered, doubled, and singled to lead American Heritage to a 2-0 win over Archbishop McCarthy in a regional finals game on Monday.

“It was a great game tonight,” said American Heritage manager Bruce Aven. “We had a great pitching performance by both pitchers from McCarthy and Heritage.

“Talan did a great job. We’re proud of him. He’s been a tough pitcher for us, a big game pitcher. Our defense played great behind him and we were able to get enough runs to support him.”

Holiday struck out three and walked just one in his 75-pitch gem, of which 48 were strikes. The Patriots’ junior right-hander retired 12 batters in a row between the second and fifth innings and was in complete command throughout.

He got all the offensive firepower he would need from Ramirez, who led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo homer to center field to extend the Patriots’ lead to 2-0.

“That was a big moment,” Aven said. “Our team’s been playing better this late in the season. They’ve been playing better defense. Our pitching has been keeping us in every ballgame throughout the season giving us a chance to win.”

American Heritage (20-10) ranked #8 in Broward, got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning when R.J. Machado and Lucas Ramirez bounced one-out singles before Sebastian Garavito delivered a fielder’s choice grounder that scored Machado.

Ramirez collected three of the Patriots’ seven hits with Andrew Ortiz and Blayden Caballero also contributing one each.

“We’re excited to get another opportunity to go back to state and get a chance to repeat,” Aven said. “It’s not very often you get those opportunities and we’re very fortunate that we have worked hard and overcome a lot of obstacles to get to this place.

“We have two more games that we need to go out and try to compete and do the best that we can to see if we can win another one.”

Archbishop McCarthy (15-15) got outstanding pitching as well from senior right-hander Stephen Joyce, who struck out six over six innings and walked just two while scattering seven hits.

Bryan Arriata had the lone hit for the Mavericks, a lead-off single in the top of the sixth inning. Pinch-runner Cody Kunka went to second on an error and reached third base on a fielder’s choice grounder off the bat of Matthew Conger, but was stranded there.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!