Doral’s Ralph Suarez, Miami Christian’s Chris Cuadra are Dade Baseball Coaches of Year

Ralph Suarez finally got Doral Academy baseball over the hump, with the Firebirds winning the Class 6A state title this season — their first in school history.

Chris Cuadra got Miami Christian back to where they were just three years ago — hoisting the Class 2A title.

The state championship-winning coaches are also the Miami Herald’s Dade Baseball Coaches of the Year.

Suarez became the first baseball coach to lead two different Miami-Dade County schools to state championships. Suarez won four state titles at Brito Miami Private School and also was part of a state championship team as an assistant coach at Gulliver in 2004 as well as four state softball championships as an assistant coach on the Gulliver softball team.

Suarez’s Doral team this season went 25-4-1 while playing a loaded schedule. After an 11-1 loss to Plantation American Heritage on March 31, the Firebirds closed the season with 15 consecutive wins, outscoring opponents 118-24. They rolled through the regional round of the state series, advancing from the regional quarterfinals via forfeit, beating Mater Academy 7-3 in the regional semifinals and shutting out Dwyer 10-0 to get to the state final four.

From there, it took some late-inning heroics to pull off the final two wins against Tampa Sickles and Pace, both by 5-4 final scores, to take home the state title.

As for Cuadra, his Miami Christian Victors went 29-3 on their way to their fourth overall state title and first since winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019, both also under Cuadra’s guidance.

Miami Christian’s four state titles is tied with Hialeah-Miami Lakes for the sixth-most all-time among Dade and Broward. The Victors only trail Westminster Christian (11), Brito (7), Monsignor Pace (7), Archbishop McCarthy (7) and now-defunct Loyola (5) on that list.