American Heritage Wins District Showdown With Summit Christian 6-1

The Stallions’ Josh Glick had a pair of RBI’s and pitched two shutout innings for the save.

First blood goes to American Heritage.

In the first district contest between the Stallions and the Summit Christian Saints, it was host American Heritage who prevailed with a hard-fought 6-1 victory in Delray Beach.

The Stallions (5-3, 1-0 in District 3A-13) broke open a tight game with a four-run sixth inning to pull away with the victory that puts them in the early lead in the district.

“This was two programs that want to be the best, and we are just sparring right now,” American Heritage coach Carm Mazza said. “The intensity was great, but we will see a lot of each other this year.”

Early on, it was clear that there is no love lost between the two programs, as the atmosphere at Picow Family Stadium was electric and both squads were loud in their support of their team.

“We’ve never had great blood between us,” Stallions starting pitcher Dylan Silva said. “It feels great to win, and we’re just glad that it went our way today.”

Silva returned for the scheduled start after missing American Heritage’s previous five games due to an ankle injury. His return was well-timed with the tough Saints (6-2, 1-1) on Friday’s slate.

The senior lefty pitched five shutout innings on 93 pitches, allowing only one hit but walking six while striking out seven.

“I just wanted to play. It was killing me to miss those five games,” Silva said. “My ankle is 100 percent healed now, and we just need to continue to play.”

The Saints’ Sam Murphy bats against Stallions starter Dylan Silva.

Silva earned his first victory of the season to improve to 1-1.

American Heritage did not commit an error in defense of their solid pitching.

But the Stallions’ offense had its own challenge in trying to hit off of Saints lefty starter Sam Murphy. The senior worked four full innings on 70 pitches and limited Heritage to a pair of singles. He walked three and struck out six, and through the first three innings, he also kept the Stallions scoreless.

But in the bottom of the fourth, Heritage finally got one across when Corey Cohen laced a shot to the right-field gap to drive in courtesy-runner Amfernee Seymour. Seymour had come in for catcher Chris Canavan, who had reached on an infield error.

Murphy forced a pop-out to the third baseman and then recorded his final strikeout of the game to escape the threat with minimal damage done.

“Both starting pitchers had great games, but we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities to score,” Summit Christian coach John Drouin said. “We made a couple of miscues, and they did what they’re supposed to do with them. The floodgates opened up, and it got away from us.”

Saints catcher John Silviano frames a pitch from starter Sam Murphy.

Second baseman Michael Shephard started off the big sixth inning with a single and, after Connor Power reached on an error to put runners on the corners, Todd Isaacs dropped a bunt on a suicide squeeze in which the ball died on the infield grass and allowed Isaacs to reach with the single and Shephard to score easily. Leadoff hitter Trevor Maloney then blasted a shot to left field for a standup double that scored Power and Isaacs. Jon Spada was hit by a pitch, Jonathan India walked to load the bases and Maloney came home on a sacrifice fly from Josh Glick.

The Stallions turned the ball over to the right-hander Glick in the sixth. After allowing a leadoff single to Shane Swanson, the junior responded by striking out the side on the way to earning the save.

Glick recorded five of his six outs via strikeout.

“He has come a long way, and he can get both lefties and righties out,” Mazza said. “He is just nasty, and we are confident he can close versus anybody.”

The Saints were able to avoid the shutout and get to Glick for a run in the seventh.

Junior Efren Sanchez, who also was returning to the lineup after missing time with an injury, had a two-out single and then came all the way around to score on a deep shot from John Silviano.

But it was too little too late, as Glick closed it on a groundout.

“Great championship teams learn from their mistakes and make adjustments,” coach John Drouin said. “We’ll get healthy, and then we’ll get back to square one.”

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