Miami Springs baseball rallies in extras to knock off Mater Lakes for district title
Sometimes it takes awhile to develop a district rivalry. But if Thursday night’s drama in the District 15-4A championship game at Miami-Dade North is any indication, the Miami Springs and Mater Lakes baseball teams are well on their way.
For the third year in a row, the two programs met to determine a district championship and, even though both were already comfortably in the regional playoffs based on what they had already accomplished in the regular season, it mattered little as the two teams went at it like the two heated rivals they’ve become.
In the end, it was Miami Springs, fresh off a GMAC championship two weeks ago (the second in program history) that kept the momentum rolling when it rallied from a late two-run deficit to pull out a dramatic 5-4 extra-inning win over the Bears.
The end came in the bottom of the eighth when Sammy Camacho, who had already delivered a clutch pitching performance in a GMAC semifinal upset of Columbus, came through again in crunch time. Camacho laid down a perfect one-out squeeze bunt down the first base line that scored Magdiel Estevez from third.
Estevez was on third due to a huge Lakes error. After turning in a brilliant pitching performance in relief up to that point, the Bears’ Javier Reyes fielded a bunt down the third base line by Estevez but threw wide of first. The ball rolled all the way to the right field corner allowing Estevez to reach third before Camacho brought him home.
“I’m never afraid of the big moment,” Camacho said. “Coach gave me the sign and I knew it was my job to come through for my team. It was a big-time moment and it was up to me to deliver. I knew I had to bunt it down the first base line and he gave me a perfect pitch on the outside to do that. A big win for us because we just won GMACs and wanted to keep that momentum going into regionals next week with a district championship.”
And the Golden Hawks (19-8) will do just that.
And Springs, now 19-8, will do just that. With the win, the Hawks locked themselves in to the No. 2 slot in Region 4-4A behind No. 1 Ft. Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons and got quite a surprise when the state released its pairings over the weekend. That’s because the loss dropped Mater Lakes to the No. 7 spot. Thus the two teams will turn around and go right at it again in a Region 4-4A quarterfinal contest on Wednesday, May 8 at 3:30 p.m. at Springs High School.
After staking themselves to an early 2-0 lead, it looked like the Hawks, with Estevez on the mound and pitching well, might coast to an easy win.
But the Bears, unimpressed by Springs’ gaudy record and GMAC title, would have none of that. They chased Estevez in the fifth when, after Bryan Ravelo went all the way to third on an Estevez throwing error to first, Taisuki Rodriguez and Alfrin Rosario drilled back-to-back RBI doubles that were followed by an Andres Gomez RBI triple to right center and a Jeuri La Rosa RBI single to right.
Just like that, Mater Lakes led 4-2 but perhaps the biggest moment in the game came right here. That’s because the Bears still had runners on second and third with no outs and were poised to blow the game wide open.
But Camacho delivered in the clutch again, relieving Estevez on the mound and inducing a short fly ball to left followed by back-to-back strike outs to end the inning with no more damage.
The Hawks were down to their last six outs when they rallied with two runs in the sixth to tie the game, Dorrian Soto coming through with a two-out RBI single and Yordan Perez drawing a bases-loaded walk, chasing starter Vladil Baldepina.
“Just another great effort tonight by the boys and the kind of win that really can get you ready for what will be some tough games coming up in regionals,” Springs coach David Fanshawe said. “Winning the GMAC and beating teams like Columbus and Southwest played a big role in our ability to keep our poise tonight after we fell behind and find a way to come back and win.”
This story was originally published May 3, 2024 at 1:56 PM.