Miami Springs powers its way past Bishop Verot and into first state baseball final

The task for the Miami Springs baseball team was a big one.

Facing a team that was 32-2, ranked No. 2 in the state and playing in its home town with almost the entire school student body in the stands, Fort Myers Bishop Verot figured to be a formidable and challenging opponent.

But the Golden Hawks? They never blinked. Didn’t even bat an eyelash.

All they did was open up a can on Bishop Verot and sent the Vikings and their fans back over across town in shock following a 12-2 six inning, mercy-rule win in a Class 3A state semifinal at Hammond Stadium at Lee Health Sports Complex.

The win vaults the Golden Hawks into the Class 3A championship game on Tuesday at 4 pm. where they will take on the state’s No. 1 ranked 3A team, Santa Rosa Beach South Walton, which won its own mercy-rule contest, 17-2 in four innings over Brooksville Hernando in the opposite semifinal.

The win was a big one for the school as well. Tuesday will mark the first state championship game for Miami Springs High School in any sport since the girls soccer team won the school’s last state title in February 1988.

“Just a great day today,” Springs coach David Fanshawe said. “We knew coming in that we had a tough opponent with a big home crowd behind them. I just can’t be more proud of my boys for coming in here and turning in the kind of performance they did. They weren’t overwhelmed by the opponent or the atmosphere.”

What also probably thrilled Fanshawe was that his team never had to face Bishop Verot ace and North Carolina commit Joey Lawson. In 68 innings this year, Lawson was nearly unhittable, recording 113 strikeouts with a 0.72 ERA.

But in a move that Verot coach Casey Scott will be second-guessed over, Lawson never saw the mound. Scott gambled that he could get by with the rest of his arms and save Lawson for South Walton. Springs made him pay.

The Hawks, who struggled almost the entire regular season offensively (with a team batting average just under .275) saw their bats come to life in the regional playoffs and that carried over into Monday as they unleashed an 11-hit barrage on five different Verot pitchers including starter Tyler Reeper who didn’t even make it out of the second inning.

“Honestly I was a little shocked. We were expecting to see him,” said Fanshawe of Lawson. “One of my pitchers came up to me in the tunnel before the game and told me he wasn’t on the mound. I don’t know if it was strategy or if he simply wasn’t available for some reason.”

Scott confirmed after the game that Lawson was available but that they were comfortable going in a different direction.

“I don’t really think it was a gamble,” Scott said. “We’re going for a state championship and it’s all about matchups and Tyler has been great for us all year. It certainly didn’t work out the way we expected but again, the goal was to win a state title and we felt this was the way to give us the best chance to do that.”

Fanshawe didn’t mess around. His ace, Kevin Roque was on the mound and delivered in a big way. The Vikings only managed three hits in the game and did not get their first one until the fourth inning.

His only mistake came in the fifth when Lawson, who was playing third base, took one deep over the left field fence for a two run homer. But by then, the Hawks (27-3) were already enjoying a 9-0 lead thanks to a seven run barrage they had put on the Vikings in the top of that inning that blew the game open.

“Coming out in front of everyone, yeah maybe there was a little bit of nerves but I settled down pretty quickly,” said Roque, a Nova Southeastern University signee. “But having that 1-2-3 inning in the first really helped settle me and then we got the two runs in the second so I had an early lead and I was good to go from there.”

The Hawks got their ace those two runs in the second without even getting a hit. Reeder walked Yordan Torres and Austin Argote to lead off the inning and then, after a failed sacrifice bunt attempt by Justin Mercado, proceeded to walk Kelven Perera and hit Magdiel Estevez to bring in the first run. After striking out Roydan Perez for the second out, he issued another bases loaded walk to Jordany Gonzalez and Roque had his two run lead.

While the final score certainly was lopsided, it was not in the bottom of the fourth inning when the Hawks turned in perhaps their biggest defensive play of the entire season.

After Nick Raber got a one out hit up the middle for the first Viking hit, Roque walked two more batters with a strikeout in between. With the bases loaded and two outs, No. 9 hitter Jake Sedmack hit one straight up the middle that was headed for center field.

But Perez, the team’s shortstop, dove to his left not only spearing the ball but managing to get up and shuffle it to Torres, the second baseman, who just barely got the force out and ended the inning.

“I just tried to get to the spot to at least knock it down and keep it from going into the outfield,” Perez said. “But without my second baseman, there is no play. He did a great job of getting to the bag.”

Fanshawe agreed that was the biggest moment of the game.

“A big time play in the game without a doubt,” he said. “If Roydan doesn’t make that play, it’s a 2-2 game and things might’ve played out differently from there, who knows.”

The Hawks then came up and sent on their seven run binge in the top of the fifth, RBI singles by Perera and Perez and a 2-RBI double by Estevez highlighting the inning. Perera then capped off a great day for the Hawks when, with two on and two outs in the sixth, blasted his fourth home run of the year high over the left field fence for a 3-run homer.

Asked if even he was shocked over how easily the Hawks disposed of Bishop Verot, Perera, the senior captain and an Ole Miss commit, agreed.

“You don’t go into games thinking you can knock teams out like that, especially a good team like this, so yeah, it was really something the way we did this,” Perera said. “You just want to come out and compete. But Rock (Roque) went out there and was throwing hard, we got him that early lead and then blew it wide open in the fifth. It’s a great feeling and we’re excited about the opportunity in front of us tomorrow.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 6:39 PM.