Mater Lakes baseball exacts revenge on Miami Springs
The irony was certainly not lost on Mater Lakes Academy baseball coach Rafael Jiron.
Two years after he watched his team (then as an assistant coach) defeat district rival Miami
Springs to win the district title, he was matched up against them again in the first round of regionals, with the Golden Hawks beating them to end their season.
It happened again on Wednesday, but this time, it was the Bears who turned the tables.
Just five days after Springs won a dramatic extra-inning slugfest over Mater Lakes to capture another district title, Mater Lakes got the revenge it so desperately sought as the Bears defeated Springs 6-3 in a Region 4-4A quarterfinal contest on Wednesday afternoon at Springs High’s Shelly Dunkel Field.
A happy Springs squad locked up the No. 2 playoff seed in their region last week and saw Mater
Lakes fall to the No. 7 spot two days later when the
FHSAA announced the regional pairings.
That meant Springs would have to turn around and beat the Bears all over again. But, thanks to a strong pitching performance by starter Alfrin Rosario and some clutch hitting from Taisuki Rodriguez, Mater Lakes advances to the regional semifinals for only the second time in program history (having lost to North Broward Prep in the regional final in 2021).
The Bears will hit the road again Saturday, traveling to Miami Sunset to take on the No. 6 seed Knights after they eliminated No. 3 Delray Beach American Heritage 4-3 in 9 innings.
“Absolutely, we still have some kids who were on that roster from two years ago who I didn’t have to remind them what happened to us and told the kids who were not on that team that opportunity we had in front of us when we found out we got paired up against Springs again,” said Jiron, when asked his reaction to the news that his Bears would get another shot at their rivals when it “really” counted. “Even though they shocked us early and got ahead, credit our kids for keeping their poise and battling back and really played great baseball today. It was our chance at payback and we took advantage of it.”
Jiron referred to the first two batters Rosario faced to lead off the game. Springs’ Roydan Perez doubled to right center before Ivan Membreno, who turned in a strong two-home run performance to lead the Hawks past Southwest in the GMAC championship game, did it again when he turned on a Rosario fastball and drove it high over the fence in right center.
Just like that, Springs had a 2-0 lead as a stunned Bears dugout looked on.
But Rosario never flinched. He settled down and retired the next 11 Springs batters. After the Bears (16-13) plated a single run in the third to trim their deficit in half, chasing starter Magdiel Estevez, Rosario watched from the dugout as Rodriguez stepped up with one on and two out in the top of the fourth and blasted a deep shot over the left field fence off reliever Sammy Camacho.
Region 4-3A quarterfinal - Chaminade 9, Monsignor Pace 6: Anyone who says you can’t do a 180-degree turn with a program never met Mark McCoy.
After enjoying four years of success at West Boca Raton, McCoy was hired last summer to try and reignite a struggling Chaminade-Madonna baseball program that was coming off a dismal 8-16 season.
There were no new players that transferred in, just a “roll-up-your-sleeves” and hard-work approach that McCoy put in place last fall. And the Lions saw the fruits of all that hard work pay off on Wednesday night.
Chaminade (15-9), making its first regional playoff appearance in a decade and the No. 5 seed in the region, kept its momentum by cruising to a 9-6 victory over the No. 4-seeded Spartans in a Region 4-3A quarterfinal.
The score was deceiving. Chaminade, thanks to a strong outing by starting pitcher Manny Delarosa, led by as much as 9-2 through five-and-a-half innings. The Lions bullpen struggled slightly as Pace rallied with a run in the sixth and three more in the seventh, but the tying run never came to the plate when the final out was finally recorded.
Before that, the Lions had feasted on a bushel full of Pace mistakes including walks, balks and errors to build their big lead.
McCoy and his players will have an even bigger challenge on Saturday when they travel south to take on longtime state power Westminster Christian, ranked No. 5 in the state regardless of classification, in a Region 4-3A semifinal.
DUFFIN’S LAST GAME
On the flip side was Pace and a tough end for longtime head coach Tom Duffin.
Duffin announced he would be stepping down earlier this season after leading the program over the past quarter century that included a pair of state titles in 2006 and 2018.
The Spartans, who finished 19-8, started the season 12-0 and it appeared maybe there might be a little magic dust in the air for Duffin’s last season. But the bottom dropped out on the Spartans from that point on as they wound up losing their district championship game to COHEA on their home field before losing to Chaminade on Wednesday.
“Not much you can say, hats off to Chaminade, they came in here and played a solid game tonight,” Duffin said. “We started the season off hot but then caught a slide, tried to bounce back, got a couple of wins here and there but we never really recovered. Just one of those things, when you go bad, you go bad and we went bad in every facet. We didn’t pitch well, didn’t hit well down the stretch and when you get a combination of that, that’s pretty much it.”
MORE RESULTS
Region 4-4A quarterfinals: Sunset 4, Delray American Heritage 3 (9); Key West 5, Jensen Beach 4; Cardinal Gibbons 3, Somerset Academy 0.
Region 3-3A quarterfinals: North Broward Prep 5, Melbourne Central Catholic 0; Coral Springs Charter 4, Montverde Academy 3.
Region 4-3A quarterfinals: Miami Westminster Christian 12, Keys Gate 2; Chaminade-Madonna 9, Monsignor Pace 7; Calvary Christian 4, COHEA 0; NSU University School 12, Palmer Trinity 3.
Region 4-2A quarterfinals: Miami Christian 10, Dade Christian 0; Westminster Academy 6, Brito 3; Lake Worth Trinity Christian 10, True North 7; Fort Pierce John Carroll 4, Schoolhouse Prep 3.