Somehow, some way, the amazing journey of the Miami Springs baseball team
continues. Even though they are technically the defending Class 3A state champions, the
Golden Hawks were clobbered by graduation last season losing all but two starters on
that team and entered the 2026 season in complete rebuild mode.
On top of that, head coach David Fanshawe left for Doral Academy turning over
the reigns to his top assistant Corey Estrada. To nobody’s surprise, the Hawks struggled
during the regular season, barely finishing above .500 and barley made the postseason as
the No. 8 seed in Region 4.
That all seems like years ago now. Miami Springs quickly eliminated No. 1 seed St. Brendan in the first round, No. 4
iMater Charter in the second and finished off a remarkable run through the region late
Saturday afternoon when they took care of No. 3 seed Gulliver Prep. with a 7-2 win in
the third and deciding game of a Best-of-3 Region 4-3A final at Gulliver Middle School.
With that, Springs became only the second No. 8 seed in the state to ever advance
to the state final four joining Winter Springs High School (near Orlando) which turned
the trick in 2023 in Class 6A.
“Nobody believed we could do this and doubted us, but we didn’t doubt each
other,” said Springs’ ace relief pitcher Damian Villabrille who was one of many heroes
for the Hawks in the Game 3 win. “We knew things were starting to come together at the
end of the regular season. Now we’re going back to Fort Myers again and would love to
bring another championship back to Miami Springs.”
Winter Springs lost its state semifinal thus the Golden Hawks will have the
opportunity to become the first-ever No. 8 seed to play in a state championship game but
the wall in front of them will be a huge hurdle to clear. That’s because Santa Rose Beach South Walton awaits.
The same South Walton team that will be out to avenge last year’s 2-1 loss to
Springs in the state championship game. The same South Walton team that is No. 1 in the
state (regardless of classification) and No. 11 in the nation (Max Preps). And the same
South Walton team that is 28-4 and rolled to five straight victories in Region 1 outscoring
its three opponents by a combined score of 47-2.
Springs (19-10-1) will be joined by Coconut Creek North Broward Prep, Bushnell
South Sumter and South Walton and will be the obvious No. 4 seed with South Walton
being the top seed. The two will square off in a 3A state semifinal on Wednesday, May
13 at either 4 p.m. or 7 p.m. at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
One of the senior leaders, Villabrille enjoyed perhaps his greatest high school
moment on Saturday when he entered the game in the last of the fourth to relieve starter
Michael Maiquez with his team up 5-2. But Villabrille inherited a bases loaded, no out
jam with the top of the order coming up for Gulliver as the Raiders appeared ready to
pounce on the Hawks. But a few minutes later, Villabrille, in part thanks to maybe the defensive play of
the year by third baseman Edwin Barrientos, walked off the mound celebrating with
teammates as the Raiders never scored a run. He got Lucas Murphy to fly out to shallow left for the first out before Chase
Cherne fouled out to third base for the second. That set the stage for No. 4 hitter Darwin
Vargas who laced a hard grounder just inside the third base bag that had two-run double
down the left field line written all over it. But Barrientos dove to his right to spear the
grounder, then got up and dove for third base, stretching his glove out to just barely get
the force out at third ending the inning.
“Honestly those big moments is where I feel I’m at my best,” said Villabrille who
would go on to finish out the final three innings giving up just two hits and striking out
five. “My teammates, my coaches, they trust me that I can handle situations like that and,
even though it was only the fourth inning, it was probably getting out of that jam at that
moment that won us the game. A big shout out to Edwin. That was clutch, an incredible
play.”
After winning Game 1 on Friday 12-7, thanks mainly to the long ball as Taylor
Ancheta, Eisler Piloto and Adrian Henriquez, it a three run homer, a two run shot and a
grand slam, respectively, the Hawks extended their postseason winning streak to 12
straight (including last year’s 8-0 mark on their way to the state title) and probably
thought they would just cruise to No. 13 on Saturday morning.
But the Raiders (19-13) had other plans. Thanks to a two-out, three-run bases-
clearing double by Murphy in the second inning, Gulliver jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead
and never looked back. Cherne, the starting pitcher, turned in six scoreless innings,
yielding just four hits as Gulliver coasted to a 10-0 victory forcing the third and deciding
game.
Unlike the first game, the Hawks were the ones that jumped out to the early lead
when they broke a 1-1 tie by plating three runs in the top of the second. The big hit came
with two on and two outs when Esaul Pena lofted a soft fly ball to short right center.
When the Gulliver second baseman, right fielder and center fielder didn’t communicate
as to who would catch it, the ball fell between them and the Hawks were up 4-1.
Kristopher Mederos and Yordan Torres then ripped back-to-back two out doubles
to left center in the third inning to make it 5-1 before the Raiders scored once in the
bottom of the inning on a two-out RBI single by Landon Semintilli setting the stage for
Villabrille’s heroics in the fourth.
They didn’t need them, but the Hawks then added single runs in the sixth and
seventh to complete the scoring. “We just had to put it behind us and came out in the second game with a blank
canvas,” said Pena, who finished 3-for-4 with the two RBIs when asked about his team
trying to recover from the lopsided Game 2 loss. “ It was 0-0 all over again and getting
the early lead was big. They took the early lead in the first game early so once we got the
lead early in the second, we knew we’d be good.” Soaking wet from a water cooler bath, Estrada could not gush enough about his
players and what they had just accomplished. “I just can’t say enough about what these boys have done over the last few
weeks,” said Estrada. “It’s never been about one individual either. It’s about each of them
stepping up at different moments doing their part. Today it was Damian showing his
senior leadership and coming through for us on the mound, Edwin making that great
defensive play and the others getting the key hits when we needed them. This is a
different team than the one that was on the field a month ago. They’re playing with a ton
of confidence right now and if we’re the underdogs going out to Fort Myers? So be it.
We’ve been underdogs these last few weeks and we’re still here.”
