Patriots Come Back For 7-6 Win In Cross-County Duel With Namesake Stallions

The Stallions Josh Glick (22), Michael Shephard (7) and Jonathan India (5) enjoy the FAU dugout.

The American Heritage Stallions are well aware of the hitting prowess of their Broward County namesake, American Heritage Plantation.

Squaring off against a team with that sort of offensive firepower, Stallions coach Carm Mazza knew that they would have to be next to perfect on defense in order to counter the Patriots vaunted offense.

But on Tuesday evening the Stallions were not able to make the plays when they needed them the most, as the visiting Patriots came back for a 7-6 victory in a contest played at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

The Patriots (7-1) benefited from six errors and six walked batters, which drew the ire of Coach Mazza.

“We don’t win games with those kinds of mistakes,” Mazza said. “The last few games we had played great defense, but we took a step back tonight. If not for that, the result could have been in our favor.”

The Stallions (4-3) overcame an early deficit with a monster six-run second inning in which they batted around the order in sending 11 hitters to the plate during the frame.

Senior Michael Shephard sparked the inning with a perfectly-placed bunt single with one out, advancing to second on a line-drive single through the right gap by Corey Cohen and then coming in to score on a bloop single to left field from Connor Power. The Stallions benefited from an overthrow on a play to first base off the bat of Todd Isaacs that brought both Cohen and Power in and moved Isaacs to second base. Isaacs wasted no time in swiping third base and then came in on an RBI single from Stallions starting pitcher Trevor Maloney.

“We did some things well that we know we can do; we got our bunts down and we ran well on the bases,” Mazza said. “That inning snowballed for them.”

With that snowball now reaching the size of a boulder, the Stallions followed with a sharp single off the bat of Jonathan India that skipped just past diving Patriots shortstop Brandon Lopez. Both baserunners then managed a double-steal to set themselves both up in scoring position, and Maloney crossed home plate on a sacrifice RBI from Jon Spada. After Josh Glick singled to advance India, Chris Canavan completed the Stallions’ scoring by blooping a single into left field to send India in and give the home team a 6-2 advantage.

But the Patriots had plenty of time to come back, as they tightened defensively and slowly chipped away at the lead by scoring in each of the next three innings.

Maloney threw 72 pitches over four innings, surrendering seven hits and a pair of walks while striking out three.

Right-hander Dylan Arnold took the loss to fall to 2-1.

Coach Mazza admitted that some of his younger players may have been overwhelmed by the setting, as the teams enjoyed the FAU baseball field in all its glory. But with a big district game against Summit Christian coming up next, Mazza knows the team must get used to playing in such environments.

“We got a little caught like a deer in headlights, but we have got to want to play in these big stages,” Mazza said. “We’ve got to come prepared and answer the bell on Friday. We’ve got to make those routine plays.”

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