Sometimes its better to be lucky, than good. The South Dade High School baseball team managed to be both. The Buccaneers finished the regular season in a fourth place tie with Coral Reef High School, which meant the final spot in the playoffs would come down to a coin flip. South Dade Athletic Director, Mike Pollizano made the right call and won that coin toss, which ultimately secured the #4 seed for the Buccaneers in the district tournament. With South Dade High School hosting the tournament this year, winning the coin flip was a bit more important than it would normally be.
South Dade (11-11) opened the tournament on Tuesday night against the #1 Seed, Killian Cougars (17-6-1). South Dade ace pitcher, Yamil Chavarria pitched for the Bucs and dueled with Killian ace, Ryan Floyd through six scoreless innings. In the top of the seventh inning Buccaneer pinch hitter, David Garcia led off with a single. After two groundouts moved pinch runner Lenox Verdecia to third base, Killian relief pitcher, George Aguilera uncorked a wild pitch that scored Verdecia to give South Dade a 1-0 lead. Chavarria took the mound in the bottom of the seventh to try and close the deal, but after only two pitches the rains came and the game was suspended until Wednesday afternoon. Freshman, Luis Urquiaga relieved Chavarria and was facing the top of the potent Killian line-up. After a leadoff walk to Freddy Zamora, Urquiaga got Rivera, a University of Miami commit, to flyout . Another walk put the winning run on base, but Urquiaga settled down and was able to get Chris Garcia and Adrian Parra to flyout to end the Killian rally. The Bucs were moving on to the District Championship game.
The Buccaneers now had to face the #2 Seed Palmetto Panthers (19-5). The Panthers defeated the Southridge Spartans 9-2 to earn their way into the finals. South Dade opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI single by Jonathan Brutti and a sacrifice fly by Jose Zepeda to take a 2-0 lead. South Dade added an insurance run in the seventh inning on an error by Palmetto and defeated the Panthers
3-0. Sophomore pitcher, J.P. Kenyon threw a complete game shutout, scattering six hits, walking only one and striking out three. He only needed 73 pitches on the night to lead his Buccaneers to their third straight District 16-9A Title. Coach Rene Ruiz said about the win, “These kids poured everything they had into both the Killian game and the Palmetto game. We beat two outstanding ball clubs this week.” The Buccaneers move on to host a Regional Quarter Final game on Tuesday night, May 9th, at 7:00 PM against the Braddock Bulldogs.
