Jupiter Holds On To Beat American Heritage 5-3

Warriors left fielder Guy Casaceli gets the three run third inning started off by drawing a walk.

The American Heritage Stallions staged a seventh-inning comeback but fell two runs short as the Jupiter Warriors opened their season with a 5-3 win on the opening night of the Santaluces Slam.

Jupiter used a balanced combination of effective pitching and timely hitting to win. The Warriors got off to the slow start at the plate, going down in order the first two innings.

The bats came alive in the third as they answered back to American Heritage’s early lead. After Stallions third baseman Jon India’s RBI single in the top half of the third, Jupiter’s bats got going in the bottom half. Guy Casaceli and Peter Sitaras walked back to back before shortstop Glen Casaceli laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third, respectively, with only one out. RBI singles by Kyle Vesnesky, Zac Hall and Logan Heiser gave the Warriors a 3-1 lead before they left the bases loaded to end the inning.

Jupiter was without Manager Andy Mook, who was serving a two-game suspension issued at the end of last season. Despite the absence of their coach, Interim Manager Alex McCall said he believed everyone did what was asked of them on the night.

Stallions left fielder Jon India went 2-for-3 with and RBI and two singles.

“It was a collective team effort,” McCall said. “They did their jobs, and that is really all we asked them to do. It didn’t matter who was at the controls. They all went out and did their jobs.”

The highlight of the night came in the fifth inning when first baseman and closer John McCarthy hit a two-run bomb to left center off of American Heritage reliever Zach Schneider. Not only was it the first home run of the season for the Warriors, but it also turned out to be the game-winner. McCarthy, who was 0-2 on the night, battled the adversity at the plate and turned on a fastball to hit the home run.

“I struggled my first two at-bats and a few fast balls got blown by me, but then a new pitcher came in and I got my timing down on deck,” McCarthy said. “I came up and he laid me a first pitch fastball and I connected.”

McCarthy also faced some adversity on the mound. Starting pitcher Scott Danek and reliever Todd Marcado combined to throw six innings, while allowing one run and striking out 3. McCarthy came in to close out the game in the seventh up 5-1 but did not make it easy. After walking the first two batters of the inning in Peter Castillo and Lucious Fox, he then hit India to load the bases with no outs. The next batter, Anfernee Seymour, grounded into a fielder’s choice to second but in the process scored Castillo for the first run of the inning.

Warriors starting pitcher Scott Danek threw four innings, allowing one run while striking out three in the win.

Chris Canavan came up and hit an RBI single scoring Fox and cutting the lead down to two. That’s as close as the game would get though as McCarthy calmed down and struck out the final two batters to end the game, something that both coach McCall and McCarthy know was a huge confidence booster for the new closer.

“I was worried I couldn’t throw a strike for a while,” McCarthy said. “Once I settled down, I was fine because I knew I had a good defense behind me. It was a good confidence-builder knowing that I am going to take that closer’s role and go through some tough times, so it was good to shut the door.”

The Stallions were led offensively by India, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two singles, as well as catcher Canavan, who went 2-for-4 with a single, double and RBI.

American Heritage coach Carm Mazza said his team needs to play better in all aspects if it wants to get wins this year.

“We played poorly,” Mazza said. “There weren’t very many aspects of the game we did well.”

Both teams return to action on Tuesday when the Stallions face the host Chiefs while Jupiter takes on the Kings Academy Lions.

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