Sacred Heart took on Sacred Heart June 19 for the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) intermediate division baseball championship.

But only one Sacred Heart could emerge victorious.

Sacred Heart, Bayside, earned a 17-7 win over Sacred Heart, Glendale, at Msgr. McClancy M.H.S., East Elmhurst.

“They showed focus in the field, they played well and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Anthony Nitti, head coach of the Bayside team that has now won back-to-back CYO championships.

Bayside got off to an early offensive start plating four runs in the top of the first inning. Glendale answered in the bottom of the first with a run, but then Bayside took control.

The Bayside bats exploded for seven runs in the top of the second inning – at one point recording six straight hits.

In the top of the third, Bayside added five more runs to take a 16-1 lead.

With their backs against the wall, Glendale refused to give up. The coaches kept the team’s spirits up, and that yielded some positive results.

Glendale responded with a six-run inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth to make things interesting once again. The first four batters of the inning all reached base and scored runs to help cut the deficit.

“I told them not to give up, and they played hard,” said Tom Ritter, Glendale’s head coach. “Anytime you put the ball in play, things can happen. We had the roughest start in the world, and finally we had a decent inning.”

But the following inning, Bayside added one more run to seal the victory.

In total, Bayside pounded out 15 hits. The night before the game, the entire team went to Bayside batting cages to get in some extra work.

“It definitely helped last night,” Nitti said. “We practiced hitting extra fast with the fastballs. Their pitcher has a good knuckleball, and we practiced trying to hit that with some change-ups.”

CYO coordinator Fred Sporrer gave a big thank you to McClancy head baseball coach Nick Melito for always allowing the CYO to use the school’s facilities, no matter what sport. Coach Melito meticulously takes care of the baseball field so that the kids have a professional environment to play their championship game.

Both Sacred Heart teams had memorable years and should be proud of their achievements.

“We played well the whole year,” Ritter said. “I’m so proud of the kids because we had tremendous year.”