Dominant display: Heritage routs Pittsburg behind early offensive explosion

BRENTWOOD — Heritage wasted no time shaking off Tuesday’s hard-fought loss to Pittsburg. 

Two days after being held scoreless, Heritage’s obliterated the Pirates 19-4 at home to win the second of a two-game series this week. The Patriots scored nine-runs in the first inning and didn’t look back as they notched a key Bay Valley Athletic League win. 

Senior Jason Stevens led Heritage, going 2 for 4 with a grand slam and a double. University of Miami commit Alonzo Alvarez had four hits, five RBIs and a home run. 

“This was a must-win game for us,” Heritage pitcher JJ Kinnaird said. “We had the home field advantage today and everybody was just playing for each other.”

With the win, Heritage (14-4, 3-1) got a leg up over Pittsburg in the BVAL standings. The Brentwood school sits in a tie for second place behind league-leading Liberty with three weeks left in the regular season. 

“This win is huge,” Heritage coach Kevin Brannan said. “We have to keep the same approach and keep the momentum going into our series with Freedom next week.”

Pittsburg put up the game’s first run in the top of the first inning, but that would be the last time the Pirates would find themselves ahead in Thursday’s game. 

Heritage scored its first run when junior Tyler Williams doubled to score JZ McArthur. Two batters later, Alvarez scored from third on a wild pitch and prompted Pittsburg coach Marco Cartagena to remove his starter just five batters into the first inning. 

From there, it was all Heritage. 

With the bases loaded, Stevens blew the game open when he homered to center field to give the Patriots a five-run advantage. 

“It was see ball, hit ball,” Stevens said of his grand slam. “He threw another curveball and it hung, so I knocked it out of the park.”

When Alvarez came up to bat for the second time in the inning, he blasted a pitch to right field, scoring three more runs for Heritage and giving the Patriots a 9-1 lead after the first inning. 

Despite having an insurmountable lead, Heritage kept the runs coming. 

Heritage scored a run in the second and two in the third before exploding for seven more in the fifth to shut the door on Pittsburg.

Pittsburg used five different pitchers in Thursday’s loss with the quintet combining to throw 150 pitches. 

While Thursday’s offensive performance against a stingy Pittsburg defense might come as a surprise to some, it wasn’t anything to new to Heritage. The Patriots have scored double-digit runs in nine of their 14 wins this season.

Stevens said Heritage’s ability to put out a strong offensive lineup is what makes the Patriots such a dangerous offense.

“We all battle and we all have great mentalities,” Stevens said. “We’re all great hitters one through nine.” 

Pittsburg (15-3, 2-2) – ranked ninth in the latest Bay Area News Group rankings – suffered its worst loss of the season. 

The Pirates haven’t given up more than 19 runs in a game since 2021 and have now dropped five of their last six games against Heritage. 

“Baseball will humble you,” Cartagena said. “We’ve won every type of game and we have to learn to lose every type of game. A loss like this will get us ready to compete and move forward.”