Reigning state champ, yet underdog Miami Springs baseball stuns St. Brendan again

The Miami Springs baseball team once again proved to be the “kryptonite” for the St. Brendan baseball team.

Despite earning the top seed in Region 4-3A and home field advantage throughout the playoffs, the Sabres’ season came to an unexpected end on Saturday night when No. 8 seeded Miami Springs delivered a 7-2 knockout punch in a regional quarterfinal single-elimination matchup.

After sweeping St. Brendan two straight in a Best-of-3 regional final last season on their way to winning the Class 3A state title, the Golden Hawks also beat St. Brendan, 6-0, on March 30.

So much for exacting a little revenge.

For context, of the 28 No. 8 seeds in the opening round of all seven classifications around the state, only Springs and Lake Mary (Region 1-7A) were able to knock off the top seeds.

The Golden Hawks returned only two starters from last year’s state title team, and battled through a 14-10 regular season, barely making the playoffs.

Next up for Springs, which will be on the road for as long as its playing in the postseason, is No. 4 seed iMater Prep in a Best-of-3 regional semifinal, beginning Friday at 7 at Walker Park. The second game and a third game, if necessary, would be played Saturday.

Springs pitcher Adrian Henriquez was nearly untouchable, yielding just two infield singles, and two walks over the first six innings and only once did a Sabre reach second base.

With his pitch count in the 90s, Henriquez finally tired in the seventh as he walked the leadoff hitter before giving up a double and then hitting a batter to load the bases with no outs. But by then, the Hawks (15-10-1) were comfortably ahead.

Miami Springs used the long ball to blitz St. Brendan starter Lucci Nava in the fourth inning, doing it all with two outs.

After Nava walked back-to-back batters, catcher Jovani Zara delivered a towering drive over the fence in left center giving the Hawks a 3-0 lead. After he hit Edwin Barrientos on the next pitch, Nava’s night came to an end when Yordan Torres stepped up and drilled one over the right field fence to make it 5-0. Zara wasn’t done. He made it back to the plate in the sixth and homered again, this time over the right field fence.

“Just a great job by our kids tonight,” first-year Springs coach Corey Estrada said. “The idea is to build all season in order to be playing your best ball at this time of year. I preached to the kids throughout the season to just stay level-headed and hang in there because at the end of the day, we would find ourselves in the mix and here we are, in the mix.”