Youngsters Shine As Pace Edges St. Brendan

Despite having lost six games in a row, the Monsignor Pace Spartans showed no signs Thursday evening of a young club that has struggled to visit the win column this season.

Plenty of enthusiasm on the bench and in the field helped the Spartans end the losing skid with a 7-5 win against visiting St. Brendan in a 4A-15 slugfest that featured four home runs.

Pace got its third win in this tough new district to improve to 3-6, and also proved it can win a close game. It is something a team that started two freshmen and three sophomores can build on as the district playoffs near. Prior to Thursday, the Spartans (4-14) were 0-6 in games decided by two or fewer runs.

“It’s finally good to get one that you play semi-decent,” said Pace Manager Tom Duffin. “You finally pull it off instead of getting the heartbreak. Hopefully we can take this and keep building. Our motto is try to get better every game.”

Pace received a huge night from freshman Anthony Boix, who was a difference-maker. Boix’s hustle on the base paths turned a single into a double in the second inning. In the fourth, Boix’s sharply hit single set the table for a perfectly executed hit-and-run double into the left-center gap by Danny Pombo. The hit brought Boix home all the way from first base to knot the game at 3-3.

Boix wasn’t done. He snapped the tie by punching a low pitch through the left side on a 0-2 count that brought in Lorenzo Hampton with the go-ahead run in the fifth inning. Boix finished 3-for-3 on the night.

“I started off slow, but I guess I’ve picked it up. A little help from God, too,” said Boix. “Some of those hits weren’t falling at the beginning; now they are.”

The long ball was the theme early as Nico Leres and Danny Sirven cranked out back-to-back shots that gave St. Brendan a 3-1 lead in the third inning. Pace freshman catcher Andres Sanchez opened the scoring with a solo blast in the second inning and Eliott Cutillas tacked on another home run with nobody on board in the third to trim the Sabres lead to 3-2.

Before the four-run fifth inning was over, Damian Alba — out of the No. 9 spot — padded the lead when he bounced a 1-2 pitch up the middle that brought home two runs for a 6-3 lead. Another run came via a balk.
Boix pitched a nerve-wracking final inning in relief. A bases-loaded walk followed by a wild pitch sliced Pace’s lead to two, but Boix fanned the final batter with the bases loaded.

Leaving runners on base cost St. Brendan all night. The Sabres (8-9-1, 5-4) stranded 12 runners.

“Unfortunately, we’ve done it every game that we’ve lost,” said St. Brendan Manager Luis Padron, whose team featured one freshman and three sophomores in its starting line-up. “There’s not a whole lot of team chemistry. It’s tough when you have so much youth.”

Sirven, a senior catcher, has feasted on Pace pitching. In the teams’ two regular season meetings, Sirven went a combined 4-for-5.

Four pitchers combined to hold St. Brendan to six hits. Reliever Pete Diaz notched the win by firing two-hit ball over three-plus innings to help a young team pick up a much-needed victory and experience.

“Going into the season we figured it was going to be one of those where a lot of learning was going to have to go on, but we’re sort of disappointed with some of the games that we gave away,” Duffin said. “There’s a lot of games that we should have won, could have won, but I guess it’s a learning process for them. They’re going to have to learn how to close out games. Hopefully tonight is the start of that.”

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