Coral Springs Christian Comes Up Short In Regional Quarterfinals

Coral Springs Christian has been here before. Last season, the Crusaders lost twice to Calvary Christian before defeating the Eagles in the district championship game. Then, CS Christian lost to a Palm Beach team, King’s Academy, in the regional quarterfinals.

This year, it has been deja vu for the Crusaders. After losing twice to the Eagles during the season, the Crusaders beat Calvary in the district title game, and hosted a Palm Beach team, defending state champion Summit Christian, on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, the regional quarterfinal match-up ended the same, with the Crusaders suffering a season-ending loss.

CS Christian had several chances to secure the win Wednesday, taking a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning, but the defending state champs rallied for a run in the sixth and then scored four times in the top of the eighth to take the game 6-2.

“Our region is just so tough,” said Crusaders head coach Matt Cleveland. “I don’t think any region is better. Today, we faced a defending state champion, and it was just a crap shoot. (Cabreja) hit a ball hard in the seventh, that if it’s not right at the center fielder, we win the game. That’s just baseball. Today, they executed better than we did. They’re a great team, and they deserved to win.”

Although the final score showed eight runs in the game, most of the day was a pitchers’ duel between CS Christian’s Billy Atkins and Summit’s Anthony Delaney. Atkins gave up only one earned run in five and a third innings of work, while Delaney matched him, allowing no earned runs in seven innings. When the Saints offense pushed across four runs in the eighth, Delaney became the winning pitcher. On the afternoon, he went seven innings, striking out eight Crusaders.

“He’s just a bulldog,” said Saints head coach John Drouin. “He’s good to go deep into games, and he is throwing just as hard at the end as he is at the start. This is what we’ve seen from him all year long. He’s been lights out.”

With the game tied into the eighth inning, the Saints scored four runs on only one hit, while sending 10 batters to the plate. The big play of the inning was a bases-loaded squeeze. That play brought in the go-ahead run. From there, the Saints scored their second run of the inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tyler Dupont and tacked on two more runs on back-to-back walks from Delaney and Zach Lawrence.

The Crusaders had taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth when with the bases loaded and one out, Touki Toussaint came through with a ground ball fielder’s choice to second.

That lead was short-lived, as Summit struck back in the sixth. Sam Murphy opened the inning with a walk, and John Silviano followed with a double to left-center. After a strikeout, Dakota Julylia put together a quality at-bat that ended with a run scoring single to right.

When Murphy came in and closed the door in the seventh, Summit players and coaches started thinking about their next opponent, either American Heritage or Calvary Christian. Those teams play each other tonight. After losing to Heritage three out four meetings this season, it was clear who the Saints wanted to see next Tuesday.

“Heritage,” Drouin responded, when asked which team he would like to face in the regional semifinals. “One game, we had them 4-0 and lost, then the other night, we lost 2-1 in the district final. We got them early in the year, but all of the games have been outstanding pitching duels. It would be great to face them one more time.”

Delaney was a little more politically correct with his answer.

“We haven’t seen Calvary, but we know they are a great team. Heritage, we know them well, and every time we play them it’s a battle, so we just have to make sure we keep our focus and do the things we need to do to be successful next week. I’m just happy we won this game today, and now we can start preparing for next week.”

On the other side of the field, Cleveland had the task of consoling his players after a hard-fought loss.

“I just told them to learn from this experience,” said Cleveland. “For the seniors, I haven’t talked to them yet, but I will tell them to be proud of what they have accomplished. Three of them have won three district championships. These guys all did a great job of coming together throughout the year. We learn the hard way here. We play tough teams, and in the beginning of the year, we weren’t playing really well, but the players all bought in. And by the end, we became a great team, and they should all be proud of that.”

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