North Broward Prep’s gritty comeback falls short in 3A baseball state final
North Broward Prep’s baseball team never stopped fighting.
Their grit carried them through a tough best-of-3 regional triumph at Clearwater last week to surpass nationally-ranked Calvary Christian in the regional finals.
And it helped the Eagles erase a four-run deficit on Thursday night and come within a run of the Class 3A state championship.
But when Santa Rosa Beach South Walton’s Hudson Quinn executed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Declan Fowler, North Broward Prep’s title hopes were crushed in a 6-5 walk-off loss at Hammond Stadium.
“These kids never cease to amaze me, creating and fighting. I’m just really, really proud of these guys and the way they came together,” North Broward Prep coach Brian Campbell said. “They know if they have a strike left, they’re still in the fight. I think they showed that tonight.”
The Eagles (25-8) were that close to winning their fourth state title in the past six years in what was their fifth trip to the state finals during that span. South Walton (29-4), ranked No. 11 nationally by MaxPreps, celebrated after coming up short each of the past two seasons in the state finals.
Junior Zachary Tavarez, who struggled early on the mound, allowing four runs in 2 1/3 innings, started North Broward Prep’s comeback attempt in the top of the seventh.
With the Eagles trailing 5-2, Tavarez singled to center off South Walton senior Denton Lord, a Mississippi State commit and potential MLB draft pick, who had NBP miffed early with his 97-mph fastball and curveball mix. Senior Adrian Rodriguez followed with a single before sophomore Gabriel Coupet drove in both runs with a two-run single.
After Coupet stole second, junior Caden Coleman tied the game at 5 with a single.
“The first two at-bats he got me reaching for the curveball, but on that last one I said I had to do everything for my team,” Tavarez said. “All we need is faith. I sat back on the curveball and put my swing on it. We tied it up, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
South Walton replaced Lord with lefty Parker Granse. After junior Alejandro Cabral executed a sacrifice bunt to move Coleman to second, Granse intentionally walked junior Alex Smith, who had a double and a triple earlier in the game.
Granse then struck out junior Julian Rodriguez, but hit junior Marcus Hall with a pitch to load the bases. Granse recovered and struck out junior Anthony Diaz to end the inning.
“We saw two really good arms and we outhit them 9 to 8 so that just tells you how these guys are always working and always talking and they’re responsible for their at-bats,” Campbell said.
Coleman retired the first batter of the bottom of the seventh before the home plate umpire ruled his second pitch to Fowler grazed his foot, putting a runner on. South Walton’s Carter Hawk followed with a single and Jayden Cunningham hit a bloop single to center to load the bases.
On the next at-bat, Fowler then took off for home plate and was half way there before Coleman’s pitch even hit Quinn’s bat, allowing him to score the walk-off run.
“There’s a lot of teams that would love to end their season in Fort Myers. It’s not the way we wanted to end it, but I’m really proud of them,” Campbell said. “We’re a pretty good team and they’re good too and deserve it. But at the same time, it wouldn’t have surprised me if we had won that game. I know our grit and our fight.”
North Broward Prep was in it until the finish despite three errors, including two that contributed to a rough third inning where the Eagles gave up four runs.
Coleman pitched four innings of relief, allowing two more runs, but only one earned as another error in the fourth helped South Walton take a 5-1 lead.
“The whole team put great at-bats together,” Smith said. “But big games like this, you have to be a little cleaner on defense. Even with that, we were still in the fight. We’ll be better the next time around.”
The Eagles nearly put together their comeback in the fourth when Smith tripled down the right field line and Julian Rodriguez drove him in with a single to cut the deficit to 4-1. Hall singled and Tavarez appeared to reach on a high chopper, which Lord threw a little wide of first and pulled Cunningham off the bag. But after the umpires conferred, the call was reversed and Tavarez was called out ending a possible big inning.
“Apparently one umpire had a better view of it 90 feet away than the one that was six feet away,” Campbell said. “I don’t know.”
North Broward Prep cut its deficit to 5-2 in the sixth when Hall doubled with two outs to drive in Smith, who was hit by a pitch two batters earlier. But Lord recovered by striking out Diaz to end the threat.
“We worked all year long to be here in Fort Myers and we put great at-bats together. It is what it is,” Smith said. “We’ll come back next year and get bigger, faster, stronger and get back here. This feeling of losing is going to be on my mind. I got a gold medal two years ago. I got a silver medal now. My goal will be to get back here and get another gold and one more state title for Coach Campbell.”
