Heritage Rallies To Top Pope John Paul II 6-3

Anthony Delaney pitched well and got himself out of jams Wednesday.

Pope John Paul II came out aggressive and took an early lead against American Heritage on Wednesday before the Stallions rallied in the third and fourth innings to tie and go-ahead, holding on for a 6-3 win in 3A-13.

Matthew Luzzi led off the top of the first with a double and came home on Zander Retamar’s home run over the right-field fence to put Pope in the driver’s seat.

The Stallions (6-6, 3-0) came back to tie it in the bottom of the third. Lucius Fox ripped a double — one of two on the night for him — to lead off the inning. Anfernee Seymour followed with a base hit before Connor Power walked to load the bases with no outs. Winning pitcher Anthony Delaney helped his cause with a sacrifice fly to score Fox, and Anthony Hotujec grounded out to bring in Seymour.

After a quick, 1-2-3 top of the fourth, Heritage took the lead. Tyler Frank walked, stole second and moved to third on Christian Bingo’s single. A wild pitch allowed Frank to score, and Bingo came home on Seymour’s sacrifice fly.

Undaunted, the Eagles (7-6, 1-1) narrowed the margin in the top of the fifth. Evan Schaffner singled to lead things off and came in on Luzzi’s base hit. Retamar, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and run, followed with a base hit of his own, but Delaney struck out the next batter to end the inning.

“They were tough,” Fox said. “We knew they were going to give us a battle.”

Down 4-3 and not ready to throw in the towel just yet, Pope gave itself a good chance to at least tie the game in the sixth. After a pair of strikeouts, Chris Graffeo singled, Schaffner walked and Nick Transleau was hit by a pitch to load the bases. But the next batter lined out to right field to end the threat.

Lucius Fox finished 4-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and run for Heritage.

“I knew I just had to get out of that,” Delaney said.

Heritage made sure to come back strong in its half of the sixth. Chris Canavan led off with a single and Bingo got on with a base hit, driving in Canavan. Fox, who finished 4-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and a run, doubled home Bingo.

The Eagles went down 1-2-3 in the seventh.

“We’re a young team, but we’re tough and they played well,” Pope Manager Peter Graffeo said. “Coach Carm has a good baseball team over there. It’s exactly what I expected, a good baseball game and good competition. We didn’t come out on the right side tonight. There’s more games ahead of us.”

Asked to find a positive in the loss, Graffeo said the batters kept fighting all game.

“We made them throw a lot of pitches. Anthony Delaney is a very good pitcher — more than very good,” Graffeo said. “We saw a lot of pitches. We battled. We tried to work the counts. We hit the ball hard. We had seven hits off of him. It wasn’t enough, but we won the battle as far as I’m concerned.”

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