Douglas Wins District 10-6A Opener 10-0 Over Deerfield Beach

The Douglas Eagles had a sour taste in their mouths that they had to deal with all summer and winter. The Eagles, who have become accustomed to winning district championships, fell to Coral Springs in the district final last year, and then again in regional play.

On Thursday, the Eagles ended one of the longest off-seasons of any team in the county with a dominating performance over district foe Deerfield Beach. Douglas scored early and often on their way to a 10-0, five inning victory over the Bucks. Most teams started their season either Monday or Tuesday, but Douglas players had to wait until Thursday for their first action.

Staff ace Jonathan Lipinski was on the mound for the Eagles and went three strong innings. Lipinski was on a pitch count, and Douglas coach Dean Florio was glad he had the luxury of pulling his ace when he reached that pitch count.

“He was on a strict pitch count, like all of our pitchers are this early in the season. We are looking at long term, down the road this season, not just today,” said Florio. “If the score was a little bit tighter he was going to go one more, but coming in we knew he was going to go three or four innings.”

Lipinski threw three innings and gave up no runs on two hits. The Douglas ace walked two, and struck out three. Junior Jacob Lennertz came in and finished Deerfield off, throwing the final two innings for the Eagles.

Offensively, aggressiveness was again the approach for Douglas hitters who have developed a reputation of attacking the baseball over the years. It was the lower half of the order that shined Thursday, with hitters from the sixth spot down in the batting order scoring six of the ten runs for Douglas.

Courtland McEachrane was 3-3 on the day with a triple and three runs. Nine hole hitter Luis Silverio was 2-3 with a pair of RBIs. Lead off hitter Louis Silverio drove in two runs on the day. Danny Payton had two walks, and designated hitter Patrick Kulick added a tripe and an RBI.

Asked whether the easy win Thursday would give his team a false sense of security and make them overconfident going into next week, Florio dismissed the premise, and spoke of how he and the team expect to approach each game.

“We’ve got high expectations,” said Florio. “We talk to our guys about every time we step on the field we’re expecting to win, we’re expecting to play that way…playing with a lot of enthusiasm, being aggressive, hustling, and having a good attitude was one part of it, and that’s the things as a coach, I’m making sure they’re doing.”

Douglas will face crosstown rival Taravella in their next game Tuesday night. The Trojans will go into the game having lost their first district game Thursday night to Coral Glades 4-3.

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