Southwest’s Pelaez and Mater Lakes’ Jiron are the Dade Baseball Coaches of the Year
Southwest’s Mandy Pelaez and Mater Lakes’ Rafael Jiron had something in common this season.
They each made their respective baseball teams believe they could prevail no matter how tall the odds.
That message took both squads deep into the postseason in their respective classifications.
Pelaez led the Eagles to the Class 6A regional semifinals while Jiron took an underdog Mater Lakes’ squad to the Class 4A regional finals.
As such, Pelaez and Jiron are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Baseball Coaches of the Year.
Pelaez is the winner for Classes 7A-6A while Jiron wins the honors for Classes 5A-2A.
Pelaez led the Eagles to a district championship in which they beat nationally-ranked Doral Academy and a berth in the Class 6A regional semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Palm Beach Gardens Dwyer.
It was Southwest’s first trip to the regional semifinals since 2016.
The Eagles got there propelled by multiple dramatic comeback victories including a 3-2 win over neighborhood rival Braddock in the GMAC semifinals where they erased an early 2-0 deficit.
Later in the regional quarterfinals, facing a 4-0 deficit and Dade 7A-6A Pitcher of the Year and University of Miami signee Edgar Colon, Southwest rallied to beat Varela 5-4 to advance.
“I don’t know how but they continue to find a way,” Pelaez said after the win over Braddock.
Jiron led the Bears to the regional finals for the first time since 2021 and only the second time in program history after not advancing past the district round each of the past two seasons.
As the No. 7 seed in an eight-team Region 4-4A, Mater Lakes knocked off rival Miami Springs a week after losing to the Golden Hawks in their district championship game in extra innings.
Lakes proceeded to rout Miami Sunset, a state semifinalist a year earlier, 11-1 in the regional semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons in the following round.
“Even though (Miami Springs) shocked us early and got ahead, credit our kids for keeping their poise and battling back and really played great baseball today,” Jiron said after the win over Springs. “It was our chance at payback and we took advantage of it.”
