Doral’s Suarez reaches 600 wins as Firebirds aim for return trip to state baseball finals
Few high school coaches can claim they have had state championshiplevel success consistently at every stop in their career.
Doral Academy’s Ralph Suarez is one of them.
For the past decade, Suarez has helped turn the Firebirds into one of the state and nation’s top baseball programs.
And this week, Doral celebrated a special milestone for one of South Florida’s all-time best.
The Firebirds’ 12-1 win over Gulliver Prep at home on Monday afternoon marked Suarez’s 600th career victory.
“I have to thank my wife and my family for allowing me to do what I love,” Suarez said. “It’s been a long, pretty successful ride, and I’ve been lucky to have a lot of great coaches around me.
It’s been a phenomenal ride, and I’ve been really lucky.”
Suarez, who has a career mark of 600-178-5, ranks second among MiamiDade coaches behind only former Westminster Christian coach Rich Hofman,
who won 726 games while coaching the Warriors and had 1,020 victories overall.
Longtime Columbus coach Joe Weber is also approaching the 600mark, with 598 wins as of Monday’s games.
Few have been able to match Suarez’s success when it comes to state championships, though.
And not solely as a baseball coach.
Suarez, who began coaching at Brito Miami Private in 1988, led the Panthers to four state championships and three state runner-up finishes.
As an assistant coach at Gulliver under then-coach Lazer Collazo, Suarez was part of the Raiders’ state championship team in 2003. He later coached the Gulliver softball team as an assistant under Mark Schusterman and was instrumental in that team’s winning four more state championships.
Suarez became a head coach again in 2014 at Doral. He has since led the Firebirds to a state championship in 2022, a state runner-up finish in 2019 and a state semifinal appearance last season.
During his career, over 40 of his players have gone on to play college baseball. Roughly 20 of those have been drafted and played pro ball. Two of his most famous alums who played in the majors are former Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez and former Washington Nationals pitcher Chris Garcia.
Suarez has Doral aiming for another championship this season. The Firebirds are off to an 11-1 start, with their only loss coming against nationally ranked Bradenton IMG Academy.
Suarez says he is happy with Doral’s start, considering that the team had 12 new players on its roster entering the season and faced questions about its pitching depth.
“We’re one ball bouncing back to the backstop from possibly being undefeated,” Suarez said. “We’ve faced some really good pitching. But it’s been good, considering we had about 12 new faces on this team this year.”
University of Miami signee and draft prospect Michael Torres has anchored Doral’s pitching roster along with Arizona State signee Marcelo Rodriguez and Aaron Elissalt.
University of North Carolina commit Jadyn Nunez has powered the
Firebirds lineup, hitting .533 with seven home runs and 24 RBI. Nunez, who hit his seventh homer against Gulliver and went 3 for 4 with five RBI, has also been solid on the mound, as he was when he picked up a victory against Westminster Christian. FIU commit Sebastian Berrios, who has been with the team since the eighth grade, is another standout. Berrios is hitting .333 with three home runs and 16 RBI. George Pardo went 2 for 3 with two RBI, and Evan Escobar went 1 for 2 with a homer and an RBI on Monday as well.
The Firebirds will continue to be tested for the rest of the regular season, with games still to come against powerhouses like Douglas and American Heritage.
“We’re hot right now, but you don’t want to be hot this early,” Suarez said. “Hopefully we can continue. We might struggle a little bit just because of the schedule, but the way we’re playing up to now, I take my hat off to them. They’ve done a great job.”