American Heritage-Delray baseball coach Carm Mazza has been fighting adversity since before the season started.
As injuries mounted, the Stallions stumbled out of the gate starting the year winning just two of their first 12 games and four of their first 20 games. American Heritage then strung together five straight wins before an 8-0 loss on the road to the Nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Stoneman Douglas.
The Eagles jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and added a single run in the top of the fifth and then three more in the sixth to run its record to 22-2 with its 14th straight win.
“We’ve had a rough go with injuries,” Mazza said. “We lost a D-1 arm [Matt LaPira], our starting first baseman and No. 3 hitter, and our outfielder. During the season, we lost our starting second baseman for a period of time, a starting outfielder for a period of time, and we lost a senior starter who had just returned, but all he can do is DH.
“It’s probably the most injuries I’ve had in one season since I’ve been here,” said Mazza, who is in his 24th season at the helm. “
Mazza hasn’t altered his schedule, which is a mix of county powers in both large and small schools.
“The schedule is always tough, and I think that will help us big time in the long run,” he said. “We didn’t change the schedule and we probably never will. It is a good way to get the guys better. Now we are playing our best baseball. We have turned the season around.”
It began with a 4-1 win over Champagnat Catholic and a 10-0 victory over rival Cardinal Gibbons.
“I think the win over Cardinal Gibbons was huge,” he said. “During the five-game stretch, we scored 44 runs. We want to keep getting better and play the spoiler. They are the third seed going into districts [14-4A]. We have to win out and maybe surprise everybody and win a district championship and keep playing from there.”
