Pine Crest Comes Up Just Short Against Monsignor Pace In 4A Quarterfinal

After a season of fierce battles in its district, Pine Crest was well prepared for the battle it faced Thursday night at Monsignor Pace.

Pace also has had its share of battles this year, losing by a run five times.

The Spartans found a way to be on the other side of that result as they walked off with a 2-1 victory in the Class 4A regional quarterfinal.

The win puts the Spartans (20-7) in a regional semifinal Tuesday at Coral Springs Charter, a 3-0 winner over Archbishop Carroll.

With a fired-up crowd behind him, pinch-runner Austin Miro delivered the winning hit, driving home Anthony De La Cruz with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

“Our kids, I gotta give it to them,” Pace coach Tom Duffin said. “They battled and came through in the end. It’s tough to have a loser to that game the way both teams battled, but at this point, it’s just survive and move on. I’m just happy for Austin Miro, who got the game-winning hit, the pinch-hitter. He was hurt early on in the year, got an opportunity to help his team tonight, and he did.”

Miro said “it felt awesome” to get the winning hit.

“It felt great to get that hit for team, pick them up,” he said. “Rough last inning, pick them up. I got that base hit, brought the runner in, we won. It’s great. I was looking for something to drive. Hit it somewhere where no one’s at. It was a low and inside pitch. I just turned on it.”

The teams battled for the full seven innings as Pine Crest’s Shea Parikh and Pace’s Alex Perez staged a pitchers’ duel. Both pitchers got a lot of support from their defenses. Pine Crest, which finished the season 17-11, picked off runners twice, saving at least one run.

Parikh faced just four batters over the minimum in his complete-game performance.

“He was the best,” Pine Crest coach Glen Pierson said. “He was the best pitcher out there. He was unbelievable. Their pitcher was very good, but he was incredible. And he’s been incredible all year, and we definitely relied on him. Oh my goodness, what a job he did. He really had them off balance. The defense played behind him and picked people off. He was the complete package, and then you had the bat he had today and he really was a complete player. What a pleasure to be able to coach Shea.”

Perez, who also had two hits in the game, acknowledged he could have done better, but he expressed confidence in his team to pick him up.

“Today wasn’t my best day, but I had a defense and my teammates had my back to help me get out of a couple of tough innings. I just depended on them to help me out.”

When he left the game after giving up the tying run, he said he wasn’t worried about his team’s ability to come back.

“I had all the faith in my team,” Perez said. “I trust them.”

Pace took a 1-0 lead in the first as Bryan Bermudez scored on Tony Davila’s RBI groundout, and the Spartans held on to the slim lead until the top of the seventh when Pine Crest rallied for the tying run. With two outs and Pine Crest down to its last strike, Zack Kone reached on an error before Parikh singled for his second hit of the game. Chandler Cissel followed with an infield single that allowed Kone to score to tie it. Sam Kava then walked to load the bases, but Matt Rothenberg was put out at first for the third out. Alex Perez had two hits for Pine Crest.

“This really was an incredible display of maturity and talent and a commitment to competing to the very end,” Pierson said. “And we struggled to get the baserunner around early on in the game, but we did not quit and that’s characteristic of this squad. Whether we get it early or we fight for it late, it’s really a part of our identity.”

“For having tremendous turnover from last year and seeing these guys grow up and mature they way they did, I was exceptionally proud of them. They played an incredible baseball game. That was an unbelievable game. Unfortunately, there’s a loser, and we’re going to walk out of here with our heads held high.”

Duffin said he was expecting a fight from Pine Crest, which was trying for its first regional semifinal appearance since the team reached the state tournament in 1980.

“I want to commend Pine Crest,” Duffin said. “They battled. We knew they were going to be a team that battled to the end. They weren’t going to be easy outs, and that showed tonight. They were down to their last strike, and their kid put the ball in play and they scored and tied it.”

Pace hasn’t been to the state final four since 2006 when they won the Class 4A title, but Duffin said his team can’t quite look that far ahead just yet.

“We’re a long way away,” Duffin said. “We have one senior starter. I can’t even begin to look at that. We got to go up to Coral Springs and play a play a very good Coral Springs [Charter] team. I’m taking it one at a time. There’s no way I can look in advance. You still got two games to get there, and so many things can happen. You need a lot of luck, and you need the kids to start gelling at the right time. Are they capable? Yes, but so are all the other teams that are still in it.”

Miro said the Spartans have set winning a state title as their goal and believes the team’s chemistry can help them achieve that.

“We’re looking to win it all,” he said. “We want to win it all. We work together. We look out for each other, back each other up. We have a lot of heart.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!