Atlantic Tops Heritage In 1st HSBN Palm Game Of The Week

Atlantic players congratute Cody Bryant after he comes home after hitting a two-run home run.

A localized shower caused the first-ever HSBN Palm Beach Game of the Week between Park Vista and Jupiter to be canceled last week, but dry conditions Saturday meant Mother Nature wouldn’t be responsible if the second attempt didn’t work out.

With the weather permitting, Atlantic and American Heritage had the privilege of actually becoming the first teams to play in an HSBN Game of the Week, and the two didn’t disappoint Saturday at Heritage as the Eagles rallied from a one-run deficit to go ahead by three and hold on for a 5-3 win.

Each team selected a player to throw out the first pitch Saturday. Atlantic chose to honor former legendary coach Dave Smith by having his longtime assistant coach Jim Maloney throw out the pitch. Former Heritage star Stephen Spradling threw the pitch for Heritage. Spradling was injured in a sky-diving accident in 2009.

Once the first pitches were thrown, the Stallions (3-5) came out of the gate hot as Lucius Fox ripped a double to lead off the game and then came home on a double by Jonathan India.

The Eagles (3-5) erased that deficit and went ahead by three with a four-run third. Jake Wallin doubled in Bruce Thomas, and Bobby Borque scored on an error before Cody Bryant lined a shot over the left-field fence for a two-run home run that also scored Joey Ohannesian.

“I was just focused in, ready for him to make a mistake and show me a pitch I can hit,” Bryant said. “He left me with a change-up up, and I took advantage of it.”

Brendan Brundage pitched well for Heritage.

Seeing his team go ahead by three pleased Eagles Mananger Steve Wilson.

“We did the little things correctly, and then Cody got a ball up that he could handle and he took it out,” Wilson said. “Cody has been hitting the ball very well the past three games, and I was glad he was able to get ahold of that.”

Heritage chipped away at the lead and made it a 4-2 ballgame in its half of the third. Tyler Frank singled and scored on a trick play.

The Stallions got one more in the fourth as Anfernee Seymour tripled and came in on an error.

Jarren Pickney scored in the sixth for the final margin.

Both starting pitchers — Brendan Brundage for Heritage and Alex Cordes for Atlantic, had good outings.

“Alex did a good job pitching. He worked his butt off,” Bryant said. “We put our freshman out on the mound, and he did good. We came through with some clutch hits for the team. In the end, we came out on top. We’re excited. We’ll enjoy tonight.”

Stallions Manager Carm Mazza said “Brendan pitched very well, and we didn’t play defense behind him. He kept us in the game, threw strikes, got ground balls when we needed them, and we didn’t make plays.”

Despite seeing his team struggle, Mazza was happy with the event itself.

“It’s great. It’s a nice event. HSBN does a great job at what it does. The coverage is great. I know a lot of programs really appreciate it. To have a game like this, two teams so close, it’s fun. It’s a good atmosphere.”

Former star player for American Heritage Stephen Spradling threw out the game’s first pitch.

Bryant, too, was happy to compete in the Game of the Week.

“It definitely made us want to come out of here with a win more and hopefully it pushes us to come out harder and come out with a victory even more,” Bryant said. “We don’t plan on losing any time soon. We’ll take this win into next week and carry on.”

Wilson said both teams had a lot to play for Saturday night.

“Any time you plan a team such as American Heritage, and they’re a Delray team and we’re a Delray team, you play a little bit for pride. We were able to come out on top, but they work so hard. And it was great to just play someone like that, and I appreciate [Heritage Manager] Carm [Mazza] inviting us to come on over. The game could have gone either way. Both teams played very well. We’ve won three in a row now. Our goal is to take it one step at a time, actually one rung at a time. I tell them we need to climb up the ladder and take it one rung at a time, and hopefully we won’t have to step back.”

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