TSC Baseball Championship - Day Three Recap
Game 7: No. 1 St. Thomas 4, No. 5 Webber International 6
The fifth seeded Warriors pushed across a run in the first and added two more in the second on Langston Provitt’s two-run homer to left, his second of the tournament. The top seeded Bobcats climbed within 3-2 in the bottom half of the inning on Nick Izquierdo’s two-run single to left.
Chris Medina doubled Webber’s lead in the top of the third by launching a solo home run to left, and stretched their advantage to 6-2 in the fifth on RBIs from Jesse Coleman and Alex Rodriguez.
St. Thomas cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the sixth on Oscar Rodriguez’ sacrifice fly to right and closed within 6-4 in the eighth on Randy Oliva’s RBI groundout to short, but were silenced in the ninth as the Warriors held on for the 6-4 victory and advanced to the Sun Conference Championship game.
Manny Rodriguez and Marcus Begg led the Warriors offensively, picking up three hits apiece. Tanner White struck out six while tossing 6.1 innings in the victory, improving to 5-1 on the year.
Izquierdo led the Bobcats at the plate with his 2-3 performance and two runs batted in. Ian Exposito suffered his first loss of the season for the Bobcats, falling to 9-1.
Game 8: No. 2 Southeastern 2, No. 3 Florida Memorial 7
Nick Bottari drove in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first to give the second seeded Fire an early lead before Sergio Chil laced a clutch two-out, two run double to left center, pushing the third seeded Lions in front, 2-1 in the top of the third.
The score held until the bottom of the sixth when Southeastern drew even on Torrence Sumerlin’s two-out RBI single, scoring Nick Bottari, who led off the inning with an infield single.
The Lions reclaimed a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch and added four runs in the ninth, all coming with two outs, coming away with the 7-2 victory.
Florida Memorial was led offensively by Yunior Sanchez as he went 4-5 and Chil added three hits and drove in four runs. Ian Romano came out of the bullpen for the final four innings, striking out four while moving to 3-0 on the year.
For the Fire, Sumerlin and Bottari racked up three hits apiece, while each driving in a run. On the mound, Felix Dieguez struck out five while pitching 7.2 innings in the loss, dropping to 6-2 on the campaign.
Game 9: No. 1 St. Thomas 14, No. 3 Florida Memorial 3
St. Thomas notched the first run of the ballgame on Chris Garabedian’s RBI single to right in the bottom of the first and tacked on two more runs in the second, including an Jackie Urbaez’ RBI triple.
The score held until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Bobcats offense broke the game open, scoring seven runs, highlighted by a three-run home run off the bat of Sergio Lopez, to push ahead 10-0.
The Lions ended the shutout as Axel Gomez’s two-run double capped off a three-run top of the sixth to climb within 10-3. The Bobcats answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on Oliva’s two-run homer, and added a run in the seventh, and another in the eighth, to advance on to the tournament championship game against Webber.
STU tallied 19 hits in the game, with eight going for extra bases including two home runs. Garabedian led the Bobcats at the dish with his 5-5 night while driving in three runs. Rene Arauz struck out six while picking up the complete-game win, moving to 8-3 on the season.
Florida Memorial recorded eight hits on the night, with Yunior Sanchez leading the way with his 3-4 game, including an RBI. The Lions used four pitchers on the night, with starter Kyle Parks striking out two in the loss, dropping to 2-2.