American Heritage scored four runs in the first inning and T.J. Thornton held West Boca Raton to one run in five innings, leading the Stallions to a 6-3 victory against the Bulls in a game between ranked teams Tuesday.
The anticipated pitching duel came an inning too late for the Bulls (7-2, No. 2 The Post Top 10).
The Stallions (7-0, No. 9 Post Top 10) were expecting to face University of South Florida-bound pitcher Jason Whelan. Instead, they got Sean Adelman, and took advantage.
After retiring the first batter, Adelman allowed a single to Brandon Nieves and hit Derek Neisman with a pitch. Mike Russo's double scored Nieves.
"In baseball, everyone has a bad day, and today was mine," said Adelman, who is working his way back from a labrum injury. "I wasn't hitting my spots and my slider wasn't working."
Adelman proceeded to load the bases for Jeremy Matos, who cleared them when he lined a 2-1 curveball into the gap in right-center.
"I was in a slump until today," said Matos, who finished 2-for-4 after adding a double in the sixth.
"I started reading a book that talks about the mental side of hitting. 'See the ball, hit the ball is the main thing.' That's what I did."
West Boca turned to Whelan to record the final out of the inning and he shut down the Stallions until the sixth, striking out eight.
Thornton held up his end of the anticipated matchup.
Mason Mattlin's RBI single in the first was the first hit the left-hander had allowed in 12 innings of work this season.
After that he shut down the Bulls, allowing three more singles in five innings.
"They are (ranked) No. 2 in The Post and they are a big 5A school, and we feel like we don't get a lot of respect as a 2A school," said Thornton (4-0).
Nieves relieved Thornton in the sixth, but couldn't get out of the inning. He allowed a two-out RBI double to Nico Pepia and a run-scoring single to Marcus Beesley.
The Stallions, however, got those runs back in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of Russo's two-out, two-run double.
West Boca loaded the bases in the seventh with one out, but Heritage's Niesman induced a pop-up to third and a strikeout to preserve the victory.
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