North Broward Prep Beats McCarthy In Dramatic Fashion

Box Score

A battle between two of the top Broward baseball programs of the last decade took place on Tuesday night, with three time, and defending state champion North Broward Prep, facing seven time state champion Archbishop McCarthy, and for anyone expecting a heavyweight battle, the two teams did not disappoint.

The Eagles went up early, then fell behind late, before two dramatic home runs, one off the bat of Julian Rodriguez to tie the game in the seventh, and send it to extras, and the knockout blow, a three-run walk-off by Josiah Haslem, to give NBP the 7-6 win.

“Just super happy for Julian with the home run to get the game to extra innings, and then Josiah with the walk-off,” said Eagles Manager Brian Campbell. “I was really happy with the way the guys grinded tonight. It was a great team win.”

The teams came into the game on what appeared to be different directions. The Eagles were coming off a trip to Alabama, where they won three of four games, while the Mavericks had lost four of their last five.

Early on, it looked as though it would be another game where NBP cruised, as they jumped to a 4-0 lead through the first four innings. But McCarthy, despite their 2-6 record, have had several games that could have gone either way, and in the fifth inning, their offense took advantage of some timely hitting, and NBP errors, to explode for seven runs, taking a 7-4 lead.

“We made some costly errors and McCarthy took advantage of them like good teams do,” said Campbell. “My hats off to them, because they put pressure on us early, and especially there in that fifth inning.”

The fifth inning wasn’t the only inning where the Mavericks made some noise. After the Eagles clawed back to tie the game with single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, McCarthy scored two runs in the top of the eighth, highlighted by a Danny Machado home run, and a fielder’s choice RBI.

That left the Eagles with just three outs, down two runs. In their half of the eighth, Kiernan O’Neill led off with a single, and Max Burkholz walked. That set the stage for Haslem to launch a first pitch bomb to left, clearing the bases, sending the home team crowd and Eagles dugout into a frenzy with the 7-6 win.

For Campbell, it was a learning experience win for his young Eagles team. Campbell has a strong history of having his teams develop throughout the season, and be better as they head towards the playoffs. And despite being the defending state champions, he understands that they will need to continue to improve in order to make another state run.

“We are a young team that is learning how to win on the fly,” said Campbell. “I am happy with the way we are competing, but we have to get better and eliminate the defensive mistakes to accomplish our goals for this season.”

North Broward Prep has played one of the toughest schedules in the state so far in 2025, and it does not get any easier moving forward. The Eagles face HSBN Broward #7 Chaminade-Madonna Thursday, and close the week with a match-up against Broward #3 American Heritage-Plantation. They then travel to play Palm Beach #5 Jupiter early next week.

McCarthy also has a tough stretch coming up, with three straight games versus #6 Nova, #9 Pine Crest, and #8 St. Thomas over the next week.

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