Newman Survives Close Call With Olympic Heights

Christian Vazquez hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to secure victory for the Crusaders

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Six-and-a-half innings of hard-fought baseball eventually came down to one bang-bang play on Wednesday night. Sam Howell’s Cardinal Newman Crusaders hosted his old team, the Olympic Heights Lions.

After the Lions’ Omar Hernandez scored on an error to knot things up at three in the top of the seventh, the Crusaders came right back and loaded the bases with their first three batters of the bottom half. With Chris Cammarata representing the winning run at third after leading off the inning with a single, Christian Vazquez sent a fly ball into right field. Vinny Scambone flagged it down near the foul line, and then proceeded to make an immaculate throw as Cammarata made a mad dash for home plate. Both the ball and the Crusaders’ runner arrived at their objective at the same moment, the ball smacking neatly into catcher Nick Stachnik’s glove while Cammarata slid feet first into the dish.

The crowd on hand eagerly awaited the umpire’s ruling on the play. Without hesitation, the man in blue waved his arms to his side, indicating the runner safe and, subsequently, Cardinal Newman the 4-3 victor. The Crusaders began their celebration while Olympic Heights Manager Casey Beck and his team argued against the call to no avail.

“I came up to bat, and I just wanted to put the ball in the air,” said Vazquez about his heroics. “I got an outside pitch and just took it that way. I kind of got under it.”

The umpire’s call at the plate left many with differing opinions, as umpire’s calls often will. It was no surprise who believed in this one and who did not.

Howell thought it was as good as they come.

“I knew he was going away from the ball,” said Newman’s skipper, in reference to Scambone. “So, it was going to be a hard throw. Maybe if he hits the cut-off, then they get him. But I thought he was under it. That’s what it looked like to me from right here.”

Unsurprisingly, Beck disagreed.

Miguel Fernandez was in the zone, batting a perfect 3-for-3 and scoring a run for the Lions.

“He left early,” said the man who replaced Howell as the leader of Olympic Heights baseball this season. “It was bang-bang at the plate and it’s just miserable to have to end the game like that. It takes it away from the kids, I believe. That’s a tough one to swallow.”

Such a dramatic ending was appropriate for a game that was tightly-contested throughout.

The teams swapped unearned runs in the early innings. Vazquez earned a free pass to start the game, moved to second on a base-hit bunt, to third on an error and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Rudy Viton that came up just short of being a two-run home run.

The Lions drew even in the second when Miguel Fernandez started a 3-for-3 night with a ground-ball single into center field. He advanced to third, and then scored on Gino Damian’s ground out to second. Olympic Heights almost took the lead on the play when Aaron Weldy tried to come all the way around from second, but he was called out at the plate.

In the third inning, Viton made up for missing out on the home run in the first. With a full count, two out and a runner on second, he sent one sailing over the left field fence to expand the Crusaders lead to 3-1.

“I saw the opportunity with less than two outs I just decided to do some situational-hitting,” Viton said about his sacrifice fly. “The home run was a 3-2 count. I kind of just shortened up and the baseball gods took that one. I kind of lost it in the air; I just ran.”

The Lions pulled back within a run in the fourth when Ivan Ortiz led off with a double and was later knocked in by Stachnik. Fernandez recorded his second hit of the night, a double grooved down the left field line, in the next at-bat to keep the pressure on Newman starter German Torres. But the southpaw sandwiched a walk in between a strikeout and a ground out to keep the lead intact.

The conclusion was left in the hands of each team’s bullpen. Jared Spector spelled Lions starter Aaron Weldy after the fourth inning and held the Crusaders scoreless until that final fateful run in the seventh. Newman turned to staff ace Tyler Krull to preserve the win in the sixth. While he technically blew the save, he did eventually earn the win while striking out three in two innings and only giving up that one unearned run. It is a result that makes Howell happy, stating that the young pitcher has been a “tough-luck loser” too often this season despite pitching lights out.

Rudy Viton walloped a two-run homer to give Newman a 3-1 lead in the third inning.

The strike to home in the seventh was not the only time Scambone flashed his defensive prowess. In the fourth inning he charged in on a fly ball by Andrew Morgan and made a spectacular sliding catch to end the inning.

“Just a great night,” Beck said of his right fielder. “I mean, the kid’s been hurt all year, and he made a great catch and probably the best throw I’ve seen since I’ve met him..”

A few plays earlier, Stachnik made a great throw of his own. Carson Powell tried to steal third base, but Stachnik fired a perfect strike just inches above and to the right of the bag to nab him.

The win is the Crusaders’ second in a row and puts them at 5-6 on the season. Meanwhile the Lions have now lost four straight to drop to 3-9.

“It was a good game” said Howell. “But, I knew it would be good, because they would be fired up because of me.”

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