Key West High’s baseball team extended its unbeaten streak to 4-0 last weekend, defeating Barron Collier twice, 13-4 on Friday, March 4, and 4-2 on Saturday night. This weekend, March 11 and 12, the 7:30 p.m. opponent each night will be Merritt Island.
In Friday’s game, Preston Herce was the hitting star with a home run, triple, double and walk that drove in seven runs total. Trevor Zuelch also had three hits, while Noah Burnham, Kai Smith, Anden Rady and Jose Perdigon contributed two hits apiece. Jack Haggard and Wyatt Kuhn contributed a single each.
Jacob Burham pitched five innings, giving up four runs on six hits and three walks. Marlin Takovich finished up the final two innings.
On a rainy Saturday night, both teams scored a run in the first inning. Barron Collier edged ahead with a run in the top of the fifth, but Key West scored a pair in the bottom of the inning and another one in the sixth. Rady had two hits. Noah Burnham, Smith, Haggard and Herce had a hit apiece. Lucky Borroso went 4⅓ innings, giving up one earned run, while Felix Ong finished up, picking up the pitching win.
THE LADY CONCHS softball team also kept its record unblemished at five victories by beating Ferguson, 17-0, in a Friday, March 4 game that was called after four innings and a Saturday doubleheader over John Carroll Catholic, won by Key West, 6-2 and 14-6.
In the smashing of Ferguson, coach Jason Garcia was able to use 15 players, including pitcher Chloe Gilday, who gave up two hits and two walks while striking out six. With two hits apiece were Ty Cervantes, Dharma Murray and Yahaira Williams, who had a home run and drove in six runs. Scarlet Niles, Izabella Perez, Marina Goins, Emily Bracher and Madie Gonzalez each had a hit.
In the first game of the twinbill, the Lady Conchs scored three in the first and never looked back. Williams continued her heavy hitting with three hits, including a triple, and Gonzalez had two hits and three runs batted in. Cervantes, Hernandez and Goins each had a hit.
In the second game, both teams had their hitting shoes on. Williams again had the biggest shoes with two doubles and a single. Goins had a triple and single. Caroline Smith had a double and single. Perez had two singles. With one hit apiece were Montique Van Straden, Cervantes, Murray, Hernandez, Chloe Knowles, Gonzalez and Bracher. Cervantes, Smith, Williams, Perez and Goins drove in two runs each. Nevaeh Arnold gave up 5 runs (2 earned) in three innings and got the win, while Chloe Gilday stopped the visitors, striking out 10 and allowing no earned runs in the final four innings.
After a Wednesday, March 9 game at Archbishop McCarthy, the Lady Conchs face Marathon at 7 p.m. Friday at the Backyard and hit the road for a 3 p.m. Saturday game at Westminster Christian.
