Olympia Titans 2
Pembroke Pines Jaguars 0
The Olympia Titans perfect season continued on Saturday afternoon with a 2-0 victory over Pembroke Pines, giving the Titans their second straight FHSI Showcase championship.
Michael Byrne and Juan Hillman, two of the highest ranked prospects in the state, helped Olympia to the title. Byrne was tremendous on the mound, throwing all seven shutout innings. He allowed just four hits and one walk with four strikeouts. The box score doesn’t tell the whole story though … Byrne absolutely dominated the Jaguars lineup from start to finish. Very few balls were hit hard, and the senior RHP was able to keep Pembroke guessing during the entire game.
Olympia was able to strike first in the top of the first inning. With one out, Hillman stroked a double to the gap to put a man in scoring position. After a strikeout, it looked as though Hillman might be left stranded. Kirk Sidwell changed that outcome, singling on the first pitch of his at bat to bring Hillman around to score. After both Byrne and Pembroke starter Anthony Garcia swapped scoreless second innings, the Titans came through again in the third. Leadoff man Drenis Ozuna started things off with a base hit, but was then caught stealing during Hillman’s at bat. Hillman would then walk and advance to second on a wild pitch. Similar to the first inning, the next batter would then strikeout, leaving Hillman on 2nd with two outs. After Sidwell walked to put two men on, it was Jordan Morrow’s turn to play clutch. He sent a 1-2 pitch into the outfield, that scored Hillman and put Sidwell on third base. Garcia was able to escape further damage by inducing a ground out to end the inning.
Pembroke threatened in the bottom half of the fourth inning. With two outs, Anthony Gomez ripped a single to put a man on for the Jaguars. In the next at bat, an error by the third baseman allowed Danny Rodriguez to reach safely and move Gomez to second base. A passed ball would then put the game tying runs in scoring position. Byrne composed himself, and was able to strikeout Trent Herzog to end the threat. The Jaguars would not threaten again, as they never had a runner past first base after the fourth inning. In his seven total innings pitched, Byrne went thee up, three down four times, and never faced more than five batters in an inning. Hillman finished the day 1-3 at the plate with two runs scored to the lead the Olympia offense.
Tournament Awards
MVP
Michael Byrne, Olympia
Byrne appeared in two games during the week for the Titans, and dominated both. Though his first outing was brief, he was able to stall a Niceville rally in the seventh inning earning the last two outs of the inning. He would earn the win when his team walked off in the bottom of the seventh. In his one start this week, Byrne started the championship game for Olympia and dominated for all seven innings, allowing no runs on just four hits with four strikeouts.
Cy Young
Logan Allen, University
Allen was a key component in two of University's wins this week. In his first outing, he fired a shutout seventh inning , allowing just one hit and striking out one to earn a save over Florida Christian. He would start the Titans' game the next day, going the distance against Viera. In seven innings pitched, he scattered four hits with just one walk and struck out eight batters to earn the complete game shutout.
All-Tournament Team
Players
Danny Acevedo, University
Hayden Bhavsar, Edgewater
Vinny Catanza, Orangewood
Brandon Chinea, Florida Christian
Christian Coipel, Florida Christian
Drew Frederic, Niceville
Kendrick Garcia, Florida Christian
Jack Ginsberg, Windward
Tyler Head, Niceville
Riley Hogan, Edgewater
Christian Huff, Niceville
Trent Lawrence, Orangewood
Jackson Lueck, Orangewood
Drenis Ozuna, Olympia
Brian Rey, Deltona
William Rosado, Deltona
Kirk Sidwell, Olympia
Ruben Someillan, Florida Christian
Pitchers
Logan Allen, University
Michael Byrne, Olympia
Vincent Fuentes, El Rancho
Anthony Garcia, Pembroke Pines
Juan Hillman, Olympia
Daniel Olivero, Pembroke Pines
Chance Riley, Niceville
Dylan Stevens, University
Derek West, Trinity Christian
Will West, Niceville
Steven Young, Deltona
Two-Way
Leo Rodriguez, Montverde