McCarthy rolls to finals

Rival ousted in semifinals, 4-3

PLANTATION — With the poise of a championship program, Archbishop McCarthy avenged its loss to American Heritage in the district final.

Hitting three solo home runs and staving off a seventh-inning rally, McCarthy, ranked 13th nationally by MaxPreps and winners of five of six state championships, took down rival American Heritage 4-3 on Tuesday night.

The Mavericks (26-2) will play for the regional title next Tuesday.

Heritage nearly came back from down 4-1 in the seventh inning. Joe Perez struck out Anthony Boix looking to end it with the tying run on second and the winning run on first.

Nine-hole hitter Kyle Carter drilled a solo homer and Tristen Casas hit a double to right-center to bring the tying run to the plate. After a walk and with Casas on third, Jacob Pino drove him in with an infield single to bring up Boix.

Perez, Alex Toral and Kobe Lopez all hit solo home runs for McCarthy – Perez in the first, Toral in the third and Lopez in the fifth.

Perez’s blast to left had the Mavericks up two in the first after Lopez, who doubled to lead off the game and scored on a Toral groundout. Toral’s thirdinning homer regained a run that the Mavs surrendered with a bases-loaded walk in the second.

Austin Genao relieved McCarthy starter Yordani Carmona to get out of a bases-loaded fourth inning jam. Genao was pulled for Perez after he brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh.

After Carter drew the

run-scoring walk for Heritage in the second, Alfonso Guillen grounded out sharply to third to leave the bases loaded. Guillen would strand three runners in the fourth as well on a hard-hit line drive to left.

The Patriots, ranked 43rd in MaxPreps’ national poll, finished their season 19-5. ATLANTIC 6, CORAL

GLADES 2: Meeting for the fourth time this season, Atlantic again topped Coral Glades, this time in the Class 8A regional semifinals.

Atlantic, which won the prior three meetings over its district foe, got a lead-off single in the first inning from Alex Cordes before Justin Varisco laced an RBI triple down the right-field line to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Atlantic then took advantage of a pair of Coral Glades throwing errors, going up 2-0 after Varisco scored on a wild pitch by

TJ Densmore. Two innings later, Cameron Husing scored from third on a wild pickoff attempt at first.

Atlantic will advance to next Tuesday’s 8A regional finals. — Wells Dusenbury POMPANO BEACH 5, SOMERSET ACADEMY 1:

Pompano Beach rode a two-hitter from sophomore Trevor Kniskern on Tuesday night at home to defeat Somerset Academy in the Region 4-5A baseball semifinals.

Pompano Beach (20-8) went through four consecutive losing seasons prior to the arrival of coach Joe Giummule. Pompano went 14-10 in Giummule’s debut season a year ago before winning the district championship this year and now advancing to the regional final, set for next Tuesday.

Somerset (24-5) had won 15 of 16 contests coming in. But the Panthers lost for the third time in four meetings with Pompano.

Nick Marcantonio ripped a solo home run over the left-field fence in the first for Pompano. The Tornadoes went up 2-0 in the second on a walk to Max Stein, a single from Chase Costello and an RBI squeeze bunt by Mike Shuler.

But Somerset got on the board in the top of the fourth. Derek Cartaya reached on an infield error, advanced to second on a ground out, stole third and scored on an infield single from Kenny MorenoCosta. It was the Panthers’ first hit off of Kniskern.

Pompano got the run right back in the bottom of the fourth — without the benefit of a hit — to go back up 3-1. Stein, who got on with a walk, scored on a throwing error.

The Tornadoes tacked on two more runs in the bottom of sixth to go up 5-1. Shuler and Bobby Aseere had RBI singles. — Pat Lammer

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Archbishop McCarthy’s Jake Holland makes it back to first as Tristen Casas tries to make the tag in the class 6A baseball regional semifinal game.