Miami Springs baseball wins state title, breaks school’s 37-year title drought

Even though there were plenty of fans in the stands making a lot of noise, Magdiel Estevez heard none of it.

He knelt down behind the pitchers mound, dropped his head, closed his eyes and shut off the rest of the world.

The Miami Springs senior pitcher was about to pitch what he hoped was the last inning of his high school career and the most important one. He needed a moment.

With the pressure of an entire team, school, alumni and community on his shoulders and the Golden Hawks nursing a one-run lead and three outs away from making history, all he did was deliver in a remarkably clutch way.

Estevez not only retired the side in order but struck out all three batters he faced, sending his Hawks teammates running to the middle of the field for the traditional dog pile celebration.

Miami Springs edged Santa Rosa Beach South Walton 2-1 in the Class 3A state championship game at Hammond Stadium.

South Walton, which also was a state runner-up a year ago, losing in the final to Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons, brought a 31-3 record and a No. 1 Class 3A state ranking into the game.

But just 24 hours after upsetting hometown favorite Fort Myers Bishop Verot in the semifinal, Springs once again relished the underdog role and delivered.

And with it came the school’s first state championship in any sport since 1988 when the Hawks’ girls’ soccer team defeated Melbourne in February, 1988. It also was only the second state title for any program in the last 55 years dating all the way back to boys swimming in 1970.

Springs also became only the third Miami-Dade County public school team to win a state title over the last 22 years, joining South Dade and American who both won it in 2014.

“I don’t really like to pray for hits, strikeouts or wins,” said Estevez, a Miami-Dade College signee who was nothing short of brilliant, allowing just two hits over his seven innings of work while striking out six including those final three.

“My prayer to the Lord was mainly, ‘put your hands over me and I need you to guide me at this moment.’ I know that, win or lose no matter the outcome that people would love me regardless. That really helped me find peace at that moment. Such a big blessing to be here and be a part of something so special today. I thank God that he allowed me to perform the way I did today and that I was blessed with such great teammates.”

He’s right about those great teammates.

As great as Estevez was, he was the first to make sure his infielders got recognized. And for good reason.

The Hawks’ infield of third baseman Jordany Gonzalez, shortstop Roydan Perez and second baseman Yordan Torres have been nothing short of brilliant all season long. And on a day that they needed to be at their best, they delivered, especially Gonzalez who had a stretch in the fourth and fifth inning that might have reminded some of Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series.

Over a six-batter span, Gonzalez made four incredible defensive plays, two of them diving to his left to throw South Walton runners out and prevent the Seahawks from mounting any kind of a rally.

“Everytime Mags (Estevez) has gone out on the mound this season, he would leave everything on the field for us,” Gonzalez said. “So today it was my turn and our entire infield’s turn to leave everything on the field for him. It all starts in practice. You work day-after-day-after-day taking ground ball after ground ball and it prepares you for moments like today. So it was just a matter of all of us doing our job out there and protecting our pitcher.”

Springs coach David Fanshawe, completing his ninth season since taking over the program in 2016, could not have praised his pitcher more.

“Magdiel, the way he pitched today was basically the way he has pitched for us all year,” Fanshawe said. “Coming into this game I saw just how calm he was out there. Like all season, he never would get rattled no matter how big the moment was and the moment didn’t get any bigger for him than it was out there today. He was truly magnificent at the most important time we needed him to be.”

Going up against some impressive South Walton starting pitching, unlike the 12-2 mercy rule win over Bishop Verot on Monday, offense would be tough to come by for the Hawks.

The Seahawks threw University of Florida commit Braxton Varnes out there to start the game before Auburn-bound Coleman Barthwick replaced him in the third inning.

But Springs designated hitter Taylor Ancheta didn’t seem to be impressed with either one. Because somebody who had not hit a home run in over a year, stunned even perhaps himself when the lefty got a Varnes fastball in the second inning and launched it over the right field fence for a solo home run and 1-0 Hawks lead.

“Honestly, the whole thing is still kind of a blur right now,” said Ancheta with a wry smile. “I got a first pitch fast ball down and in and I just turned on it and got barrel on it. Honestly, I couldn’t believe I hit it that far. I knew it was gone when it when it left the bat.”

Desperately needing an insurance run, after squandering a golden chance when No. 9 hitter Justin Mercado led off the fourth inning with a triple into the right field corner and wound up not scoring, the Hawks plated that valuable run in the top of the sixth.

With runners on first and second and two outs, Torres ripped a shot right at South Walton first baseman Jaie Cunningham who could not handle the sharp grounder as the ball trickled into shallow right field. Perez never slowed down, flying around third and crossing the plate without a throw to make it 2-0.

The run proved to be the difference as the Seahawks touched Estevez for their only run in the game in a tense bottom of the sixth. After Hudson Quinn led off the inning with only the team’s second hit of the game, he was sacrificed down to second, Estevez walked leadoff hitter Frank Wells.

A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third before Cameron Tipton-Thomas hit a ground ball out to second scoring Quinn from third and advancing Wells to third. With the tying run 90 feet away, Varnes, the team’s No. 4 hitter hit a line drive to right but Andres Suarez was right there to cooly make the catch to end the inning.

“Not yet,” said Fanshawe when asked if what his team has just accomplished for the school and the community had sunk in yet. “I just want my team to enjoy this moment and try and embrace the history. We knocked off two very good teams, we have a lot of people back home in Miami Springs waiting for us. School, community, my ex players, my phone is blowing up right now which is so great.”