Archbishop Rolls To 13-1 Win; Coral Springs Christian Plays Well In Loss

The spring break Selective Recruiting Invitational came to a close for two Broward teams on Friday, and even though one lost and the other won, both teams played well. C.S. Christian lost 6-2 in the afternoon, despite playing decent baseball, and Archbishop McCarthy won the nightcap 13-3 over Reagan.

Archbishop had intentions of winning the tournament when the week began, but those hopes were dashed when Columbus shut out the Mavericks in the first game. In the three games following that loss, Archbishop showed that they are still one of the best teams in the state.

Friday night, the Mavericks overpowered Reagan right from the start. The Bison attempted to flex their muscle with a first inning home run by catcher Mario Amaral, but McCarthy answered immediately with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first.

In the second, Brandon Roberts keyed a four-run inning with a home run to right. The blast was one of three on the night for the Mavericks. Offense was not a problem for Archbishop as they received contributions from many of the usual suspects.

Nick Basto went 2-for-3, with a triple, two runs, and an RBI. Jose Brizuela, Alexander Fernandez, and Ivan Santos also added two hits apiece. Freshman Brian Gonzalez had two hits as well, and the young slugger added a two-run homer to right field. It is not often that a freshman has the poise to hit the ball the other way so early in his career.

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard,” said Gonzalez of his third inning blast. “My first at-bat I didn’t really see the ball that well. In the next at-bat, I tried to just shorten my swing up a little, try to make some contact, and it just happened to go out.”

The defending state champion Mavericks finished the tournament 3-1, and although they did not recognize their goal of winning the event, Head Coach Rick Bielski still took some positives away from a successful week of baseball for his team.

“We’re very happy with the way we finished,” said Bielski. “We always talk about finishing strong, and I was very proud of the boys, to finish this strong against quality competition is big.”

C.S. Christian did not experience the same fate earlier in the day. The Crusaders played perhaps their best game of the tournament, but were beaten by Doral.

The loss came despite C.S. Christian players hitting the ball hard all afternoon, while only striking out once. On the mound, Crusaders pitchers threw strikes, but gave up one too many big hits. The difference in the game was the ten runners left on base by the team from Broward.

“Everything we were supposed to do today, we did, except get the big hit,” said Crusaders Head Coach Matt Cleveland. “We have a team that is as good as anybody when we play well. Today, they played well and beat us.”

For C.S. Christian, Kyle Pitts continued his hot hitting, going 2-for-3 with a stolen base. Lead-off hitter went 2-for-3 with a home run, and Colin hunt drove in one of the Crusaders two runs with a sacrifice fly.

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