Heritage-Delray Gives St. John Paul II Its 1st Loss Of The Year

The American Heritage-Delray Stallions found the perfect time for their best performance of the season. Coming off of two straight losses and hosting the top-ranked team in the Palm Beach Power Rankings on Wednesday, Heritage-Delray responded with a 4-1 victory to hand the #1 St. John Paul II Academy Eagles (9-1) their first loss of the season.

The Stallions improve to 4-7, and Manager Carm Mazza is hoping this carries some momentum as they are now heading into their most challenging stretch of games this season.

“It’s a really big win for our team! Hopefully giving us some needed confidence. That’s a really good Pope team,” Mazza said. “We’ve battled all year and just haven’t finished games, and we hope tonight we can build some confidence we need.”

On this night, the Stallions held on for the finish that Mazza is looking for. After falling into an early 1-0 hole when Eagles second baseman Derek Dohler drove in Scotty Crowe in the top of the first, they responded to take a 3-1 advantage on back-to-back RBI from Gabe Dietrick and Anthony Toscano in the bottom of the third inning. Alex Zhao scored on a passed ball to tie things in the second, and Matt Pace scored for the second time on the night thanks to an RBI double from Lucas Shahrabani in the sixth.

The Heritage-Delray pitching staff took care of the rest. Noah Garfinkel delivered a strong outing to earn the victory, picking up the quality start by allowing one earned run on five hits and two walks in six complete innings. The right-hander struck out eight in picking up his first victory of the season.

Logan Grecseck closed out the seventh inning to record the save. Although he allowed a hit to Crowe with two outs, he responded to strike out the final batter and strike out the side.

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