Jaguars Ride Dominguez’s Arm To 11-0 Tourney Opening Win

Monday kicked off the HSBN Fall Classic tournament, and it could not have been a better night for baseball across Broward County. At Flanagan, the Coral Springs Jaguars took full advantage of the beautiful weather. Riding the right arm of Christian Dominguez and the timely hitting of Brian Godoy, the Jags opened up their tournament with an 11-0 victory over the Bengals in Bracket A.

Dominguez threw six strong innings, shutting out the Bengals while scattering three hits. Control was the key for Dominguez, as he walked only one batter while striking out six.

“I felt really good out there tonight,” said Dominguez. “My thing is to always throw strikes, and mix up my pitches, keep the other team off balance. I was able to do that tonight, and it’s a great way to open up the tournament for me and my teammates.”

While Dominguez dominated on the mound, the offense also had a big night. Jacob Melton went 3-for-4, with a double and two RBIs, and Godoy continued a trend of strong hitting from the Jaguars’ nine-hole hitter. Godoy knocked in the first run of the game and was on base all four times he stepped to the plate.

“The bottom of our order was impressive tonight,” said Jaguars manager Jorge Miranda. “Brian got a big hit early to start the scoring, and after the bottom got us going, the top of the order picked it up at the end. It was a team effort, and it’s good to see these guys manufacturing runs.”

The Jaguars got the scoring started in the second when Bryan Keeler reached on a two-out walk. Keeler executed a perfectly timed delayed steal, and came around to score on a Godoy single to center.

In the third, the Jags extended their lead, again doing so with two outs. It looked as though Bengals starter Chase Perry was going to cruise through the inning when TJ Williams singled to left. Cameron Schultz, and Alex Lara followed with walks, and when Bryan Keeler walked, pinch-runner Preston Vegotsky came in with the second run of the game.

A wild play ended the inning, but not before two more runs came across the plate. Designated runner Josh Edelman scored on a wild pitch, and when the throw back to plate went past Perry, Lara came around to score as well. Second baseman Jarred Hammer ended the play by throwing out Keeler trying to advance at third.

In the fourth, the Jaguars added some insurance with Godoy again in the middle of the action. After reaching on an error, Godoy moved to third on an errant pick-off throw. He then came in to score the Jags’ fifth run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Dominguez.

The Jags starter was still cruising on the mound, taking a perfect game into the bottom of the fourth. Perry broke up the masterpiece with a lead-off single to right. After a strikeout, Dominguez faced his first jam of the night when he hit Chris Rodriguez with a curve ball. The Jaguars pitcher worked out of trouble by getting Zach Crosno to fly out to center and John Marousky to ground out to second.

From there, the Jaguars tacked on an additional six runs, four of which coming in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, all that was left to figure out in the 11-0 game was who would close the door. Miranda went to Godoy, and after his strong performance at the plate, Godoy responded on the mound by striking out the final three batters of the game.

The 1-0 record in the tournament is nice, but Godoy knows the Jaguars will have to play even better in their upcoming games against the Falcons and Raiders if the team wants to move into the second round.

“We just need to keep executing,” said Godoy. “It’s going to get tougher from here, but I feel like we’re up to the challenge.”

On the other side of the field, the Bengals will go back to the drawing board.

“We made some mistakes tonight, and it cost us,” said manager Mike Cuminale. “We’re not going to overpower teams, so we have to do the little things right to give us a chance to win. Tonight we didn’t do that. Hopefully the rest of the week we will compete a little better than we did tonight.”

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