South Broward Rallies To Pick Up Big District Win Over Piper

South Broward rallies in last inning to take lead, pitcher, James, holds on for the save.

The South Broward Bulldogs got the better of the Piper Bengals last night in a stunning District 11-6A showdown.

Abraham Alejandro scored the game’s first run for Piper on a bases loaded walk to Colby Costanzo.

Bengals third baseman Eric Morales snared a hard liner off the bat of Casey Hayes and threw to second to double-off the runner, which ended a second inning threat for the Bulldogs.

Another lead off walk led to another run for Piper in the bottom half of the inning.

Bryan Rath’s triple just inside the right field line scored yet another Piper base runner who had reached base to lead of an inning with a walk.   Rath then scored the fourth run for Piper on a single through the right side by Orlando Doria.

The fourth inning for South Broward started with Josh James stroking  his second single of the game.  A stolen base and two wild pitches scored James for the Bulldogs’ first run.  With two outs Bart Mugione drilled the team’s second double of the inning into the gap in right-center field.  Mugione came home on Ulysses Peguero’s single, a slow roller to short.  A beautifully executed bunt single by Dylan Weichhan loaded the bases, but the Bulldogs stranded three.

A 1-6-3 double play ended a fourth inning Piper threat.  All quiet in the fifth. In the sixth, a booming triple by Mugione setup a Casey Hayes squeeze bunt that made the score 4-3.

Piper responded by getting that run back on the strength of a hit batter, an infield single and a pair of walks in the sixth.

A pair of lead off walks set the stage for South Broward’s dramatic seventh inning.  Freshman, Ken Rasor, successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt and when the ball was thrown wildly to third, Weichhan scored to make it 5-4.  However,  when the left fielder picked up the ball, he too uncorked a wild throw allowing a second run to cross the plate,  knotting the score at five apiece.  Rasor then rode home on clean-up hitter Kirouac’s clutch RBI double to the gap in right-center field to give the Bulldogs a 6-5 lead.  He too came home on Piper’s third throwing error of the inning to increase the lead to 7-5.

“The double to right center by our clean-up batter Kirouac was big,” Coach Giummule said after the game. “That’s why he is our clean-up batter.  He’s very disciplined at the plate.  He’s led our team in walks the last two years.  I wish he’d become more aggressive.  I don’t want my clean-up  batter leading my team in walks.  I want my clean-up batter hitting doubles to right center,  like he did when it mattered [tonight].” 

With all due respect to Piper, the rain which had been falling for more than half an hour and caused a brief delay,  made it difficult to throw accurately to the bases, and South Broward continually challenged them to throw the wet ball with some very aggressive base running.

South Broward’s joy almost turned to agony as Piper mounted a rally of their own in the last half of inning seven.  With one down, eventual winning pitcher, Casey Hayes, issued a pair of walks followed by a balk to put the tying runs in scoring position with one down.  A passed ball then followed,  making the score 7-6, as both runners moved up 90 feet.  After another free pass, Hayes was replaced by Tuesday’s winning pitcher, Josh James.  He  proceeded to load the bases with yet another base on balls (Piper’s 13th drawn walk of the game). This set the stage for a Piper come-back win.  However, James settled down, retiring the next two batters, one via strikes and the other on a bang-bang play at first. He picked up the save for the effort.

Of the dramatic ending, Giummule had this to say about James, “He came into my office today and said, ‘coach if you need me today I’m ready.  It’s a District game and I want the ball.’  And I said,  ‘slow down big fella.  We got it under control,’ and every inning he said, ‘coach I want the ball,  I want the ball!’  So when a kid says that, ya’ know,  it’s kinda hard to say no to that.”

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