South Dade 6
Palmetto 4
Seven innings wasn't enough for the first game of the day on Thursday. South Dade took advantage of the international tie breaker in the eighth, plating four runs to pull away for a 6-4 win over Palmetto.
The game was tight through the first seven innings, as both teams put two runs across the board. Palmetto scored one each in the third (sac fly from Danny Lopez) and the sixth (Lopez scored on a wild pitch). The Buccaneers scored both of their runs in the fifth when Jorge Vializ was walked with the bases loaded, followed by Chris Gonzalez being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
In the top of the eighth, South Dade loaded the bases with no one out. An RBI walk from Daniel Lavoy started the scoring. He was followed by a fielder's choice RBI from Keanu Fuentes. With two outs, Chris Napoles then came through with a two run single to right that blew the game open.
Ryan Herskowitz plated two in the bottom half for Palmetto with a double down the left field line to make the final score of 6-4.
Somerset Academy 3
Highland 0
The Somerset Panthers used one big inning on offense, and a fantastic pitching performance from Knicko Billings to earn their first win of the week, 3-0, over the Highland Hawks.
In the top of the third, Danny Quinones singled, and then moved to third on a failed pickoff. He scored on an RBI groundout from Jake Vazquez. A double by Colton Yancy, followed by a walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases full of Panthers. It looked like Highland might escape the jame, but an error by the shortstop on a potential double play ball scored both Yancy and Adrian Sanchez to make it 3-0.
That was more than enough support for Knicko Billings. The senior hurler was in top form on the mound for the Panthers. Over the course of six innings, Billings scattered three hits and walked two. He also struck out a whopping twelve Hawks, including the side in the sixth. Billings and Vazquez, who closed out the seventh, did not allow a Highland player past second base on the day.
Killian 5
Pines Charter 3
With a spot in the championship game on the line for Pool B, the Killian Cougars were able to outlast the Pines Charter Jaguars by a score of 5-3 on Thursday afternoon.
The Cougars pounced early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. With one out, Christian Otero drew a walk, and then came around to score on batter later on a Romeo Sanabria double. Jorge Corona followed suit with a double of his own to score Sanabria. With two outs, an error by the Jaguars third baseman allowed Corona to score and put Ernesto Medina on second. Fabian Dennes then drove in Medina to make it 4-0 Cougars.
Pines Charter attempted to chip away at the lead, but ran out of innings. In the third, they got one from a Franklin Pinales single. They also got one in the sixth from a Peter Avino RBI base hit, and one in the seventh when Pinales was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
With the win, Killian remained undefeated on the week, and earned a spot in the championship game on Friday afternoon.
Sagemont 8
DeMatha Catholic 3
The Sagemont Lions earned their first win of the week with an 8-3 victory over the DeMatha Stags on Thursday night.
The Stags were actually on the board first when Blake Badman knocked in Khalil Brown with an infield single. The Lions tied things up in the second when Danny Moreno's squeeze bunt drove in Fayvan Suarez.
DeMatha took the lead back in the third when Clark Burroughs drove in Brown on a double to left field. They added a third run in the fifth when a throw from the outfield got away from Sagemont's third baseman, allowing Brown to score for the third time in the game.
In the bottom of the fifth, Sagemont decided they wanted to win. Runs were scored in a myriad of ways including a dropped fly ball in the outfield, an RBI base hit, a failed squeeze play that turned into a steal of home, a two-run error by the second baseman and a wild pitch for good measure.
Jonathan Vega earned the win on the mound after pitching a tough six innings for Sagemont. He gave up six hits in six innings, allowed two earned runs and also struck out six batters.
Schedule for Friday March 29
All games at Sanford Memorial Stadium
8:45 am
DeMatha Catholic vs. Somerset Academy
11:15 am
Sagemont vs. Highland
1:45 pm
Pines Charter vs. Palmetto
4:15 pm
Championship Game
Killian vs. South Dade