Key West Conchs and Marathon Dolphins baseball squads are battling for trips to the state Elite Eight.
The Conchs matched up with the Scorpions of Satellite Beach for their 4A Region 4 quarterfinals. Key West got stung in game one on April 21 after putting just two runs on the board, one each in innings one and seven. The team’s three hits came off the bats of Auggy Davila, Caden Pichardo and Nelson Ong, with Kade Maltz and Pichardo getting credit for the RBIs. Jon Carlos Lampas-Gormley threw six innings, striking out six, walking two and surrendering nine hits and five earned runs.
After some back-and-forth scheduling, the teams faced off again the following afternoon, April 22. This time, it was the Conchs’ turn to do the stinging. Key West pulled ahead with three runs in the first frame and never looked back. The bats were ringing, with a team total of nine hits. Ong, Roman Garcia and Darreld Tremino were responsible for two hits each. Garcia homered in inning six to center field, and Ong tripled.
Vinny Moline started for the Conchs, giving up two hits and a pair of earned runs over three innings. Moline struck out four batters before handing the ball off to Davila for three frames. Kasey Kasper closed out the 11-5 win for Key West, sending both teams to Satellite Beach for game three on April 24.
Kasper picked up where he left off two nights prior, shutting down the Scorpions in a full seven innings on the mound. The senior hurler fanned two and gave up seven hits with no walks and no runs scored for a shutout playoff win. Davila had a single and a double while Pichardo, Maltz, Sam Holland, Ong, Garcia and Xavier Perez each contributed to Key West’s eight hits.
The 3-0 win moved the Conchs forward in the brackets to the regional semifinals. The No. 5 seed Conchs drew top-seeded American Heritage as their rivals for a new three-game series on April 28 and 29 at Heritage.
Night one proved to be tough sledding for the Conchs after the Patriots piled on four runs in the fourth inning en route to a 6-1 final score. Should the teams split the wins in games one and two (game two results not available at press time), Heritage will travel to Key West May 1 to face the Conchs at Rex Weech Field at 7 p.m.
CORAL SHORES
Coral Shores finished 19-5-1 this season, earning its first-ever district championship. The Hurricanes were dealt a challenging hand in their path toward states, earning the lowest seed in 2A’s Region 4 and taking the field against top-seeded Cardinal Newman in the regional quarterfinals. The series, played at Cardinal Newman for games one and two, began April 21.
The ’Canes kept it close for innings one and two until the Crusaders opened the floodgates, scoring 14 runs in the third off a 10-hit rally to end the game early. Coral Shores managed just two hits, both off the bat of Campbell Lavoie. Lavoie started on the mound for the ’Canes, who threw an arsenal of pitching staff at the Crusaders.
The following night, Coral Shores hoped to avenge the 20-0 loss and stay alive in the postseason. The Hurricanes put two runners on base in the top of the first, when AJ Putetti singled and Maykol Bonito was struck by a pitch, but both found themselves stranded. The Crusaders managed a single run in the first frame and the score remained 1-0 until inning four, when Newman added one more.
In the top of the fifth, Eddie Holly hit a hard double into right field and Maykol Bonito drove him home. But the Hurricane bats stalled there and the Crusaders went on to score three more runs to win 5-1, sending Cardinal Newman to the semis and Coral Shores home.
Donovan Thiery had a fantastic night on the mound, striking out 10 batters, walking four and giving up just two hits. Thiery spanned the first four frames before Riley O’Berry took over. Before handing the ball to O’Berry, Thiery registered 100 strikeouts for the season, then fanned one more for good measure. Three Hurricanes – Thiery, Putetti and Holly – ended the season batting above .400. Thiery drove in 37 runs while Putetti stole 21 bases and scored 42 times this season, and both currently stand in second in all of 2A with those numbers.
MARATHON
FHSAA’s smaller Rural classification, which includes Marathon, did not require a quarterfinal series, sending the Fins directly to the semifinals where they matched up with the Miners of Fort Meade – the same team they upset for their district championship. Marathon’s district win tipped the rankings scales just enough to give them a guaranteed two home games in the three-game series beginning on April 28 and 29.
Despite a hearty home crowd at their backs and a 1-0 lead through the first five frames of error-free baseball, a three-run sixth inning proved to be the killer for the Fins in game one, ending the night with a 4-1 loss (game two results not available at press time). With a win on April 29, the Fins would take a road trip to Fort Meade on May 1 to determine which team will earn Elite Eight status.
