South Dade 9
Somerset Academy 5
A wild, back-and-forth game led to South Dade picking up their first win of the Challenge, defeating Somerset Academy 9-5 on an overcast day at Sanford Memorial Stadium.
Somerset put the first run on the board in the top of the first without a hit. Lucas Lopez drew a one out walk, and then stole second. After a balk moved him to third base, he was brought in on an RBI groundout from Jake Vazquez. The Buccaneers were quick to respond with a run of their own in the bottom half when Keanu Fuentes drove in Nick Sosa with a single. South Dade then added two more in the second on a throwing error to make the score 3-1.
On Monday, the Buccaneers carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning before eventually falling to the Highland Hawks. Today, they had Somerset on the ropes with four more innings of no hits. However, a pitching change before the fifth inning made things much more interesting.
A walk, single, walk and walk plated the first run of the inning for the Panthers. Danny Quinones then hit a sac fly to left to score run two and tie the game. Jake Vazquez drove in his second run of the game with a groundball to the hole at short to give Somerset the lead. Finally an Adrian Sanchez single brought in Lopez to make it a 5-3 ballgame.
South Dade was quick to respond with a mini-rally in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Daniel Lavoy doubled. Fuentes then followed with a single to right to score courtesy runner Brandon Moreno. Luis Urquiaga was up next, and he laced a ball all the way to the right field corner. On the relay throw, the ball overshot the catcher and ended up in the dugout, allowing both Fuentes and Urquiaga to score and make it 6-5.
The Bucs then padded their lead in the sixth thanks to defensive miscues by Somerset. A passed ball scored Nick Sosa. Then, Urquiaga found himself involved with an odd play again. With two outs, he lifted a ball high to right field. What should have been the third out of the inning was dropped by the fielder, bringing in both Henry Alfonso and Fuentes ot make the final score of 9-5.
In addition to being involved with the two peculair plays on offense, Urquiaga was also the starting pitcher who opened the game with four no-hit innings. However, it was Dylan Quintana who took home the win after firing 2.2 innings of shutout relief. Fuentes led the offense with a 3-4 day at the plate, scoring twice and driving in two.
Killian 8
DeMatha Catholic 2
One big inning provided more than enough offense for the Killian Cougars to defeat the DeMatha Catholic Stags on Wednesday afternoon in Sanford.
The first batter of the second inning for Killian struck out on three pitches. Then the wheels came off for DeMatha. The next batter, Fabian Dennes, walked. So did Jose Navarette. And Ryley Joseph. And David Pereira. And Christian Otero. Five straight passes were issued to the Cougars, scoring two. Romeo Sanabria broke the streak with a single to left field that plated two more. The sixth walk of the inning, this time to Jorge Corona, called for a pitching change. The result of the next at bat was a bases clearing triple off the bat of Matthew Krtausch, making the score 7-0. The final run came off the bat of Dennes, whose sac fly to right scored Krtausch two batters later. By the time the inning was over, the Cougars had scored eight times on only two hits.
Alex Greene tried to spark his team with a leadoff bunt single in the top of the third. He stole second, moved to third on a groundout, and then scored on a Khalil Brown single. The next batter, Jake Maske, then brought in Sean O'Connor with a sac fly to make the final score of 8-2.
Daniel King went the distance for the Cougars, throwing all seven innings. He scattered six hits, walked one, and struck out six batters in his complete game effort.
Schedule for Thursday March 28
All games at Sanford Memorial Stadium
10:30 am: Palmetto (2-0) vs. South Dade (1-1)
1:00 pm: Somerset Academy (0-2) vs. Highland (1-1)
3:30 pm: Pines Charter (2-0) vs. Killian (2-0)
6:00 pm: Sagemont (0-2) vs. DeMatha Catholic (0-2)