The Montverde Academy baseball team had a successful trip to the state of Alabama, as the Eagles won three of four games at the Alabama Showdown in Hoover.
The Eagles defeated Dothan High School 9-3 in their first game of the tournament on Thursday, before beating Hartselle High School 6-5 in an early winner's bracket game on Friday. Later on Friday, the Eagles suffered its only loss of the tournament, falling to Catholic-B.R. 11-2 in the semifinal round, before winning 5-3 over the Bolles School in the consolation bracket game.
In the 9-3 win over Dothan the Eagles had nine runs, eight hits, and six runs batted in. Senior Anthony Picciano took a big part in that, he went 2-for-4 and had 2 runs. Other players with top performances for the game against Dothan were Federic Irving (So), Rainer Garcia(So), and Michael Alicea(Fr).Â
Against Hartselle the Eagles won a close 6-5 game against the Tigers. The Eagles broke the 5-5 tie in the 6th inning. They totaled six runs, 10 hits, and 10 runs batted in. Some of the players that excelled in this close game were Alan Hernandez (So), Michael Alicea(Fr), Anthony Picciano (Sr), Arnaldo Gonzalez (Jr).Â
In the 2-11 loss against Catholic-B.R the Eagles tried their hardest but lost the battle against the Bears. The Bears remained on top the whole game and the Eagles had 2 runs in the 6th inning. Those runs were by Alan Hernandez (So), Carlos Feliciano (So) who went 1-for-3. Sophomore Federic Irving went 3-for-4Â and Rainer Garcia (So) had a run batted in.Â
In the win over Bolles the Eagles remained undefeated the whole game. The Bulldogs stayed close behind but never defeated the team. Montverde ended the game 5-3 for their last game in the Alabama showdown in Hoover. Sophomore Micheal Alicea went 3-for-4, Senior Donald Steward went 2-for-3 and Junior Arnaldo Gonzalez went 1-for3 with a RBI.Â
The efforts from the team paid off in the Alabama Showdown and it was an overall success for the Eagles. Their next game is against Windermere Prep on Friday, March 8th at 4:00 pm in Windermere.