Calvary Wins 4Him Tourney Over Highlands, 4-2

Some excellent baseball was played Thursday evening at Knights Field on the campus of Highlands Christian Academy. In the championship game of the 4Him Classic, a determined Calvary Christian Academy pulled out a hard-fought victory over the Highland Christian Knights, 4-2.

Tommy Orr starting things back up for the Eagles in the bottom of the fourth by earning a walk. He moved to second on a wild pitch and was advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Colin Majewski. Winn Allen followed with a base hit to left field to score Orr and push the Eagles in front for good.

“I can’t say enough about Tommy Orr,” Calvary Manager Gregg Mucerino said. “He’s an old-school ballplayer. He plays hard, does the little things right, and he hits the ball.”

Both teams came into the game having each won two games in the tournament and the stage was set for the championship. Highlands Christian (9-6) tapped their ace, senior Mitchell Carroll, while Mucerino chose freshman Christian Scott.

“Christian has a tremendous upside,” Andrew Gottfried spoke about his fellow pitcher. “He’s only a freshman, but he’s built like the perfect pitcher. He is going to do great things for Calvary Christian and beyond.”

Having scored more runs than Highlands Christian in the previous tournament games, Calvary Christian, was awarded home team status. As home team, Scott took the mound first. He was greeted by a towering home run by leadoff hitter Swindley Lint. Lint took a 3-1 fastball and lofted it over the left field fence to give the Knights a quick 1-0 lead.

Scott kept his composure and retired the next three hitters to get out of the first inning.

Calvary Christian (12-5) came right back at Highlands Christian by scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning. With Andrew Gottfried on first with two outs, junior Tommy Orr cracked a double to the base of the fence in left field. Gottfried raced around all the bases to make the score 1-1. Senior catcher Colin Majewski followed with a sharp base hit to center to score Orr and the Eagles went up 2-1.

“We had a rough loss in this tournament  last year,”  Andrew Gottfried said. “This guy, Carroll, pitched a no-hitter against us. He was just as tough today, but we fought hard as a team and came out ahead. We are continuing to go at this as a team. It doesn’t matter who is in the opposite dugout, if we play well, we can beat anyone.”

In the second inning, the Knights looked like they were going to mount a two-out rally of their own. With runners on first and second, Scott threw a pitch low to freshman Jose Sosa. Catcher Colin Majewski handled the pitch nicely on one bounce and caught a stealing Xeno Daal to end the threat.

The Knights ace, Carroll, set the Eagles down in order in the second and looked like he had settled into a nice rhythm.

Scott opened the top of the third by enticing a ground out to short stop where Josh Lane made an outstanding play to catch the speedy Sosa at first. Scott then walked Lint and the Knights were looking to get things going again. Lint stole second easily as Majewski’s throw skidded into center field. The ball was gathered by center fielder, Gottfried and quickly tossed to shortstop Josh Lane to keep Lint from advancing. Lane kept the ball and unknowingly, Lint began to take his lead off second. Lane tagged him out and again the Knights lost a chance to even the score.

Carroll was determined to keep the Knights in the game this time too, as he set the Eagles down 1-2-3 again. This frame included a beautiful one hand stab of a shot back to the mound by Gottfried. Carroll coolly gloved it and tossed Gottfried out. Carroll took things into his own hands in the top of the fourth as he singled to right field and took third on a two-base fielding error. Senior first baseman James McGrath scored Carroll with a base hit to right field.

Mucerino opted to go to his bullpen in the fifth bringing on left-handed pitcher, Noah Yeager. Yeager pitched two solid innings and kept the Knights off the scoreboard. The Eagles got an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on a double by Gottfried  who then scored on an infield error.

With the two-run lead, senior Tommy Taborda took the mound for Calvary Christian and closed out the Knights in the seventh. Taborda preserved the victory to win the championship trophy.

Lint went 1-for-2 with a home run to lead the offense for the Knights. Gottfried and Orr both scored twice for the Eagles.

“It was a good tournament, we had fun, we played well, we had a lot of energy.” Knights Manager Bruce Charlebois stated. “We came in with a eight-game winning streak. Maybe this is a humbling experience and we need to get right back up.”

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