Wild Finish As Gulliver Beats Mater Academy On Walk-Off Home Run

Gulliver’s Ricky Eusebio came up to the plate in the bottom half of the seventh with two men on base and his team down 2-1 against Mater Academy on Saturday.

Eusebio had the green light to swing away with a 3-1 count. With one swing of the bat, he ended the game when he blasted a three-run home run over the left-center wall, giving Gulliver a 4-2 win.

“I knew I hit it well but just wasn’t sure it was going over,” Eusebio said. “Once I saw the outfielder turn his back and look up, I knew it was gone and I got real excited.”

Both teams played great baseball with only one error committed. The error came early in the first inning for Gulliver but didn’t hurt the Raiders as starting pitcher Ivan Pelaez got out of the inning without giving up any runs. Pelaez pitched a complete game, earning another win while recording 10 strikeouts.

“They are a great team and played well all day,” Gulliver coach Javier Rodriguez said. “They were able to get some runs off of Ivan, and it was just a tough day to get hits with the wind the way it was blowing.”

Mater starter Mike Mediavilla and freshman reliever Andrew Cabezas also had great afternoons. They gave up one hit each, pitching three innings apiece.

“Mediavilla was great on the mound and also had a good day at the plate, going 2-for-3,” Mater coach Eddie Gorriz said. “Andrew isn’t scared of anything and does anything we ask of him whether its to come in as a reliever or start a game, and I love that about him.”

The game was held scoreless until fifth inning. Mater was able to get three singles in the inning from Mediavilla, Danny Reyes and Frankie Gonzalez. Gonzalez’s RBI single was the first run given up by Pelaez this year. Willie Abreu also drove in a run when he grounded out to the second baseman. The Lions took a 2-0 lead and tried to hold on for the win.

The Raiders got some runners on base in the sixth inning and scored to make the game 2-1. Eric Neitzel led off with a single before Christian Santisteban was hit by a pitch. Rodriguez called a sacrifice bunt from Henry Hernandez that was done to perfection and moved both runners over. Joseph Dunnand was up next and hit a ball that looked as if it would sneak through the left side of the infield. However, Mater shortstop Rey Ordoñez made a great play to stop the ball and caught Santisteban in a rundown between second and third. The Lions’ defense got Dunnand out as he tried to advance to second during the rundown and end the inning.

The 2-1 Mater lead going in to the bottom half of the seventh gave Gulliver a chance for its movie-like ending.

“We did a great job and got it into our closer’s hand like we wanted,” Mater coach Gorriz said. “I’ll go to him 10 out of 10 times, and he (Willie Abreu) is great ball player and our closer going forward without any question.”

Gulliver now changes its focus to St. Brendan, which is off to a good start as well, in a big district game Tuesday afternoon.

“Its going to be a great game, and we need to be focused because everyone always brings their A-game against us,” Eusebio said. “We really need the win since its a district game, and we are really looking forward to it.”

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