By now the St. Brendan baseball team has probably figured it out.
They have their kryptonite and it has come in the form of the Miami Springs
Golden Hawks baseball team.
Despite a fine regular season that garnered them the top seed in Region 4-3A and
the chance to play at home throughout the playoffs, the season came to an unexpected
end for the Sabres on Saturday night when the Golden Hawks, paying no attention to the
fact that they had barely made the playoffs, getting the final spot as the No. 8 seed,
walked on to St. Brendan’s field and delivered a 7-2 knockout punch in a regional
quarterfinal matchup.
After sweeping St. Brendan two straight in a Best-of-3 regional final last season
that clinched a trip to the state final four in Fort Myers on their way to winning the Class
3A state title, the Hawks traveled to St. Brendan on March 30 and shut out the Sabres 6-
0. St. Brendan was clearly out to avenge those losses. So much for that idea.
For context, of the 28 No. 8 seeds playing in the opening round of all seven
classifications (7A thru 1A) around the state last weekend, only Miami Springs and Lake
Mary (Region 1-7A) were able to knock off the top seeds.
Hit hard by graduation after their championship season a year ago (returning just
2 of 8 starters) the Hawks battled their way through a pedestrian 14-10 regular season
that saw them barely make the playoffs. But that’s all behind them now. This now
appears to be a team that is starting to catch its stride and has the look of last year’s team
that made that title run.
Next up for Hawks, who will have to do it all on the road if they plan on getting to
Fort Myers, will be No. 4 seed iMater Academy in a Best-of-3 regional semifinal. Game
one is scheduled for this Friday, May 1 at 7 p.m. at Walker Park in Hialeah. Game two
will be Saturday afternoon and if a Game 3 is necessary, it would be Saturday night..
iMater broke up a close game late and wound up getting a 10-0 mercy-rule victory over
Sunset in the opposite quarterfinal.
The star of the show on Saturday for Springs was pitcher Adrian Henriquez who
was nearly untouchable. Henriquez yielded just two base hits (both infield singles) and
two walks over the first six innings and only once did a Sabre reach second base.
With his pitch count in the 90s, Henriquez finally tired in the seventh as he
walked the leadoff hitter before giving up a double and then hitting a batter to load the
bases with no outs. St. Brendan eventually scored twice off reliever Franco Enriquez but
those were window-dressing runs as Springs was already ahead 7-0.
The Hawks (15-10-1) got all the runs they would need when they used the long
ball to blitz St. Brendan starter Lucci Nava in the fourth inning, doing it all with two outs.
After Nava walked back-to-back batters, catcher Jovani Zara delivered a towering
drive over the fence in left center giving the Hawks a 3-0 lead. After he hit Edwin
Barrientos on the next pitch, Nava’s night came to an end when Yordan Torres stepped
up and drilled one over the right field fence to make it 5-0. Zara wasn’t done. He made it
back to the plate in the sixth and homered again, this time over the right field fence.
“Just a great job by our kids tonight,” said first year Springs head coach Corey
Estrada. “The idea is to build all season in order to be playing your best ball at this time
of year. I preached to the kids throughout the season to just stay level-headed and hang in
there because at the end of the day, we would find ourselves be in the mix and here we
are, in the mix.”
BILL DALEY
