District 3A-13 Preview: Heritage In The Driver’s Seat

3A-13
Host: American Heritage-Delray High School

Tuesday, April 23rd

7PM – Game 1 – (3) Summit Christian vs. (2) Pope John Paul II

Wednesday, April 24th

Rain Date

Thursday, April 25th

7PM – Championship – Game 1 winner vs. (1) American Heritage

Full stats for 3A-13 can be found on the 3A-13 Stats Page

Overview – This three-team battle really is anybody’s game despite Heritage being in the driver’s seat with a 4-0 record. Pope or Summit are capable of the upset as they’re dangerous teams that can’t be taken lightly.
Heritage is hoping for good win for momentum going into next week’s district games as it continues its quest of returning to the state final four.

Anthony Delaney leads the Stallions on the mound.

1. American Heritage – As the top seed with a first-round bye, the Stallions know they’re in the regionals and will be concentrating on playing for home-field advantage when they face the winner of Tuesday’s Pope John Paul II-Summit Christian game in Thursday’s championship. This is the 10th consecutive season the Stallions are in the regionals.

Heritage is taking the necessary steps to return to the state championship, where it lost 2-0 to Providence. But it hasn’t been an easy season for the Stallions, who are just above the .500 mark. They broke the .500 barrier in dramatic fashion Thursday night by edging Broward 8A power Douglas 1-0 in 11 innings. It’s been that kind of year for the Stallions, whose wins and losses mainly have come in bunches.

Heritage has played a loaded schedule as usual. In addition to Douglas, the heavy hitters Heritage has played include Jupiter, Atlantic, Florida Christian, Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Central, American Heritage Plantation and Coral Springs Christian. Douglas was the only Heritage beat out of that group, but it matters little because the Stallions are the top seed in their district after posting a 4-0 mark, taking care of business when they needed to.

Only two hitters are batting above .300 and the overall team batting average is around .280. Lucious Fox is the team’s top hitter with an average around .370. He’s scored around 17 runs. Not far behind is Anfernee Seymour, who also leads the team in runs, around 19.

Anthony Delaney is the team’s ace at 5-2. He’s thrown more than 54 innings and struck out at least 85 with an ERA around 2.20. Zack Schneider has thrown more than 40 innings and Alec Feigenbaum has won at least four games while throwing more than 25 innings.

Nick Transleau comes across for the winning run

2. Pope John Paul II – The Eagles didn’t win a game in the district last year and finished with a sub-.500 record overall. This year, they’re three games above .500 and won two of their four district games. Heritage is still the team they can’t solve, losing to the Stallions 6-3 and 7-3. Pope managed to squeeze by Summit Christian 2-1 and 1-0, making Tuesday’s semifinal look quite interesting.

Outside of the district, Pope has taken on top teams such as West Boca, Cardinal Newman, Benjamin, King’s Academy and Trinity Christian. Although Pope came out on the losing end of those games, the Eagles generally played them tough and gained experience for the playoffs.

Pope is trying to get back to the regionals for the first time since 2008. The Eagles had been to the regionals every year since 1998.

As a team, Pope is batting around .245 with one player above .300: Stephen Gongreve, who is batting around .340. A couple of players — Zander Retamar and Matthew Luzzi — are just under .300. Retamar is second on team in runs with 18 to Riley Strickland (19). Nick Transleau’s 14 RBIs lead the team.

The Eagles have four main pitchers, headed by Alex Bialkakis, who has throw more than 40 innings and struck out nearly 60. Josh Parker has thrown nearly 40 innings with just over 40 strikeouts. Daniel Mayer has won four games and thrown nearly 35 innings with just over 30 strikeouts.

Summit’s Petru De La Garza pitches in a preseason game.

3. Summit Christian – The Saints have been a hard-to-figure out team this year. After going 19-9 last year, Summit has won just 10 games this year and didn’t win any of its district games despite giving Pope John Paul II a tough time both times they met.

The Saints have played tough schedule, challenging good teams all year long. Atlantic, Trinity Christian, Palm Beach Central, Benjamin, Park Vista, Archbishop McCarthy, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter and Florida Christian have been opponents this year. Although Summit lost all but a couple of those games, the Saints gained vauluable lessons that it can use on the field.

The Saints have been the the state tournament three times in the past 10 years with the 2004 and 2011 teams winning it all.

Summit is batting .278 as a team with four hitters above .300. They are Dakota Julya (around .370), Brandon Swass (around .360), Jesse Barton (around .340) and Shane Swanson (around .330).

Zack Lawrence, who has thrown more than 50 innings, is the workhorse on the mound. He’s struck out more than 30 with an ERA just above a 1.000. Colin Smith, Petru De La Garza, Scott Murphy and Roberto Lopez are other top pitchers.

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