South Plantation Earns Birth In District 11-6A Finals By Outslugging Piper 11-4

The Paladins came out swinging hot bats right from the start last night and when the smoke had cleared, their five extra-base hits had produced a convincing 11-4 win over the Bengals, sending them into the championship game versus McArthur on Thursday evening at 7 PM.

South Plantation’s starting pitcher, Brandon Burgess didn’t play like someone who was running a fever and was clearly not up to par physically when the home plate umpire yelled ‘play ball.’

In spite of his sub-par condition, Burgess did manage to deliver a very clear message early in the game. First he set the Bengals down 1-2-3 in the top of inning one.

Then, batting clean-up, he came to the plate with two-down and one on in the bottom of the first and he launched a two-run homer to left staking himself and his jubilant teammates to a quick 2-0 lead.

After escaping a second and third one-out jam with a pair of strikeouts in the second inning, Burgess and company unleashed a five-hit six-run inning to jump out to a huge 8-0 lead after only two innings complete. The big blows were delivered by John Kennedy (two-run single), Burgess, again (RBI single), and Sal Rodriguez (RBI double).

In the third, Burgess found himself in another jam. But this time the ailing pitcher couldn’t escape unscathed. A one-out RBI double by Bryan Rath got the Bengals on the board. Rath came home when Colby Costanzo drilled an RBI single to right and the inning ended with Piper on the short end of an 8-2 score.

The score remained unchanged until the Paladins added a single run in the bottom of the fourth on the strength of Mike Giordano’s RBI double, delivering Kennedy who had walked and stolen second base (his second ‘theft’ of the night.)

After a scoreless fifth inning, South Plantation added a pair of runs in the sixth. Kennedy singled to left leading off and scored his third run of the contest when Giordano went yard, depositing a two-run blast over the center field fence increasing the Paladin lead to 11-2 heading into the seventh inning.

When a clearly fatigued Burgess was asked by coach John Majors if he had anything left in the tank heading into the seventh and final frame, he replied with grit and determination that he wanted the ball and intended finishing what he had started.

A couple of errors and singles by Mikey Morejon, Rath and Costanzo led to two unearned Piper runs, but the totally spent ace of the Paladins’ staff had accomplished what he had set out to do. Burgess went the distance, allowing only two earned runs while recording nine strikeouts.

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