Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Arroyo gem leads way to 10th straight district title
PARKLAND — Revenge tastes sweet.
Just ask Stoneman Douglas’ baseball team, which used stellar pitching from Chris Arroyo on Thursday night to lift the district trophy for the 10th straight time with a win against one of the few teams to have beaten the Eagles this year.
Arroyo piled up 10 strikeouts in five innings, including three straight Ks in a potential game-tying situation, to lead Stoneman Douglas to a 5-0 home victory over Taravella.
The shutout extended the Eagles’ run as district champions, which began in 2013, and avenged a 4-3 loss to the Trojans in the season opener Feb. 22.
“It is good to get a little bit of redemption,” Stoneman Douglas coach Todd Fitz-Gerald said. “We had been looking forward to this game. I do not think they played their best, and we made some big pitches when we had to make some big pitches.”
One of the game’s biggest moments came in the top of the fourth inning, when the Taravella threatened to erase the Eagles’ 2-0 lead. The Trojans had runners on second and third with no outs, but Arroyo left the visitors stranded by producing three swinging strikeouts that zapped Taravella’s growing momentum.
“That is the difference in the ballgame,” said Taravella coach Joe Giummule. “That was our next big chance to get back into it and it kind of took the wind out of our sails.”
Added Fitz-Gerald: “What a competitive inning right there for [Arroyo] . ... It kind of deflated them.”
Stoneman Douglas’ strong first inning at the plate also paved the way for its eventual district crowning. The Eagles jumped in front on an RBI double from senior catcher Santiago Ordoñez and a groundout from junior left fielder Christian Rodriguez.
“I think it is critical,” said Fitz-Gerald of the 2-0 lead. “Any time we can score early and put pressure on the other team to have to score, it is beneficial.”
The Trojans also made four errors over the course of the game that proved costly, including in the first inning when freshman second base man Jonathan Lopez could not make a clean catch and throw on the second at-bat of the game. The mistake ultimately led to the Eagles’ first run.
“We have got to play much better baseball than we did tonight,” said Giummule. “We played awful tonight.”
Taravella’s starting pitcher, senior Tyler Gray, had four strikeouts in his four innings of action.
Now it is the Trojans who will be hoping for a chance to exact revenge in a possible rematch between the two programs in a 7A regional semifinal next Friday.
“They got us today,” said Giummule. “If we win on Tuesday and they win on Tuesday [in the regional quarterfinals], we have got to play them on Friday.”