Vargas’ gem leads Miami Springs baseball in quarterfinal
Six days after turning in a gem against a strong offensive lineup in Mater Lakes Academy, Miami Springs pitcher Jordan Vargas turned the trick again as he held the Bears to just two hits while leading the Golden
Hawks to a 5-3 victory in a Region 4-4A quarterfinal at Barry University in Miami Shores.
While he did hit four batters and walked three, Vargas worked his way out of every situation and pitched into the seventh before reaching his max pitch count and giving way to University of Miami commit Brandon Olivera, who recorded the final two outs.
Springs (20-5) will travel south to Key West to take on the No. 1 seeded Conchs (22-6), who are historically tough to beat on their home field, on Saturday night in a regional semifinal.
“Having just faced them last week, I definitely knew I would have to change my approach tonight,” Vargas said. “I gave them more fastballs because last week I was throwing a lot of changeups.”
He added: “This means a lot — we really wanted this tonight and get some revenge from last week. Now it’s off to Key West – it’s going to be a fight.”
Last week, Vargas allowed just one run on five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in seven strong innings, good enough for a district championship win, but the game was tied at one. Mater scored nine runs off the bullpen in a wild eighth inning for a 10-6 victory.
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning of the region quarterfinal, Miami Springs, the No. 5 seed in the region, managed to plate three unearned runs in the third and two more unearned runs in the fifth to build a 5-1 lead en route to the win.
Region 4-4A quarterfinal - Key West 7, Mariner 0: Trevor Zuelch 2-3, BB, R, 2 RBI; Wyatt Kuhn 1-4, 2 RBI; Preston Herce 0-1, 2 BB, 2 R; WP Andres Barroso 6 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 0 BB, 3 K; Felix Ong 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K.
Region 4-4A quarterfinal - Cardinal Gibbons 3, St. Brendan 2: The Chiefs (18-9) play Island Coast-Cape Coral
(19-7) on Saturday in a region semifinal.
MORE REGION BASEBALL
Region 4-7A quarterfinal - Columbus 3, Flanagan 2: Longtime Columbus baseball coach Joe Weber couldn’t remember ever having a starting pitcher throw more than 70 innings in a season and walk just six batters.
That was until righthander Federico Zapata toed the rubber for the Explorers this season.
Zapata, a senior and Barry University signee, doesn’t have an overpowering 90-plus mph fastball.
But his mix of off-speed stuff and ability to consistently locate and induce weak contact has continually kept batters off balance the entire season.
Zapata did it again to the tune of his seventh complete game resulting in a Columbus victory on their home field.
Columbus (21-6), the No. 3 seed in the region, advanced to Friday’s regional semifinals, where they will travel to Davie to take on No. 2seed Western.
Zapata, who pitched only five innings in relief as a junior last season, improved to 10-1 with 66 strikeouts and a staggering six walks over 73 ⅔ innings and maintained his ERA at 0.76 for the season.
“I don’t like giving away any free passes,” Zapata said. “They came out aggressive but I just kept my composure and made my pitches.”
Donning his pair of white-framed sunglasses, Zapata struck out three but issued no walks on Tuesday as he continually got Falcons hitters to chase and pop up or ground out throughout the game.
“He’s not overpowering, but the ball runs and tails and the defense loves to play behind him because he works quick and they know they’re getting the ball in play,” Weber said. “He’s very difficult to barrel up.”
Flanagan (19-9), however, swung early in counts and managed to plate a run in the first inning. Danny Perez singled to drive in Tyler Venegas, who led off the game with a double.
It was Zapata’s only earned run as Flanagan would score a second run unearned in the top of the sixth after a throwing error allowed left fielder Danny Herrera to score and tie the game at 2.
Michael Corral would lead off the bottom of the sixth with a single and come around to score the eventual winning run two batters later on a fielder’s choice ground ball by Julian Gonzalez.
Columbus answered Flanagan’s initial run immediately in the bottom of the first with a run scored by Ryan Cainzos on a fielder’s choice grounder by Luis Miguel.
Nickolas Mora’s RBI single in the second with two outs would then give the Explorers a 2-1 edge until the sixth.