The Sacred Heart and Wilby baseball teams hooked up for a competitive game on the hill at Wilby High School on Saturday afternoon.
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| Matt Mancini was solid in relief for Sacred Heart and took the win. |
For those who braved the consistently gusting winds, they were treated to a solid — if not always cleanly played — contest. Ben Gomes’ sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh brought in Peyton Stephens with the eventual game-winning run in a 5-3 victory for the Hearts. Sacred Heart improved to 6-4 while Wilby dropped to 3-5.
The Wildcats have had some lopsided losses this season, but they have also competed well against others. There was a 6-5 win home over Derby in the season opener on April 9, and then a 3-2 win at Seymour on April 18.
For the Hearts, it’s their fourth straight win since a 7-1 defeat to St. Paul in Bristol on April 16. Sacred Heart has defeated Woodland, Derby, Crosby and Wilby since.
Sacred Heart was paced by the quality relief pitching of Matt Mancini, who picked up the win.
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| Wilby’s Jalen Monroe wasn’t bad in relief for his team Saturday. |
After David Colella started the game for Wilby, Jalen Monroe turned in a pretty good effort on the mound. If you have seen the Wildcats, you know they can hit a little bit, especially Nelson Merced, who launched a home run over the fence against Holy Cross on Thursday. Merced chased a Sacred Heart outfielder back to the right field fence for a long out on Saturday.
Sacred Heart will try to make it five straight wins on Tuesday when it travels to Naugatuck to face the Greyhounds in a 3:30 p.m. contest. Wilby, which has lost two straight games, heads down the hill to Bucks Hill Park to take on first-year varsity program Waterbury Career Academy at 3 p.m.
Here’s video of Gomes’ winning sac fly from my YouTube channel.
