PP Panthers Nip Panthers Baseball Club For Fall Classic Title

Open the dictionary to the word “resilient” and you just might find a picture of the Pembroke Pines Panthers.

In another display of the never-say-die attitude that has been the program’s hallmark throughout the HSBN Fall Classic, Pembroke Pines rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat Panthers Baseball Club 4-3 in the championship Tuesday at Flanagan High School.

“I guess they don’t have any quit in them,” Pines manager Onel Garcia said. “That’s something that’s very impressive. We kept battling the whole game. Our team is very resilient. They don’t give up, and they’re getting better at-bats.”

Tournament MVP Etienne Latour, Tuesday night’s starter for Pines, gave another performance in which he showed his value as the team’s number two behind Brandon Acevedo. Latour struck out six and allowed four hits in his six innings of work.

“ET is a workhorse,” Garcia said. “He kind of got down on himself. He wasn’t getting a couple of calls, but he hung in there. We didn’t make a couple of defensive plays for him. We threw one away, but he hung in there and settled down the last three or four innings that he threw. I picked ET to be the MVP because without him, I don’t think we would have been here. He had the key hit against West Broward, he pitched about three games that he went long in, and he hit well all tournament, so I thought he was deserving. With him and Brandon [Acevedo], they make a good one-two punch.”

Latour had a game plan coming in to help his team reach its goal.

“I just wanted to throw strikes and let my defense work,” said Latour, who was effective with his fastball and slider curve ball. “We knew they could hit, so I just tried to work the corners and throw junk.”

Latour’s counterpart, Andrew Perez, also did well for the Panthers Baseball Club until running into trouble in the third. His relief pitcher, Adam Saks, shut down Pines the rest of the way, allowing only a single.

The Panthers Baseball Club offense made the most of some opportunities in the third to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the inning. Eric Collazo singled and scored on Chandler Cissel’s RBI hit. Matt Rothenberg was walked and came home on an error, and Cissel scored on a wild pitch.

Undaunted, Pines went to work in its half of the third as the first four batters in the lineup — Yoni Rodriguez, Acevedo, Luis Mercado and Israel Santana — had hits and scored. Mercado brought in Rodriguez with a base hit before Acevedo doubled and scored on Santana’s double along with Mercado. Santana came in on Latour’s RBI groundout.

“I knew we were coming back,” Latour said. “I can’t describe how I feel right now. I love it.”

Santana also was confident of his team’s ability to rebound.

“We just tried to keep our heads in the game and stay focused, hustle and make the plays,” Santana said. “We knew it wasn’t over. We come back and we try to fight.”

Santana has really come on this fall and is turning heads with his coaching staff, especially Garcia.

“I’m very impressed with Israel Santana,” Garcia said. “I’m hitting him fourth now. He was alternating in the eight/nine spot before. He’s making some good contact. Hitting that double tonight was big. And every game, he’s gotten a few hits.”

Panthers Baseball Club had few chances to get something started after the third until the seventh. Rothenberg and Chris Koppenhaver reached on walks before Saks singled to load the bases with one out. Rothenberg was thrown out on a play at the plate and Perez was put out at first to end the game.

“I like the fight we had in our team,” Panthers Baseball Club manager Glen Pierson said. “It was a tremendous fight. We didn’t give up. That last inning we set the table for ourselves and luck failed us, but I was proud of them. We had some nice plays in the field. We didn’t put the bat on the ball as well as we did yesterday, but it’s a credit to their pitcher. He did a nice job.”

Pierson said he’s happy with how his team has made strides this fall.

“From day one until now, we’ve made a lot of progress,” Pierson said. “I’m very pleased with the work ethic these guys have shown and their commitment to getting better and working as a unit. We’ve got some things still to work out, but at the same time, to get to this game, you’ve got to feel good about where your kids have gotten.”

With play wrapped up for the fall, Pines can sit back and admire its title win for a while before it has to get back to work.

“We’ll take championships,” Garcia said. “We’ll take it even though it’s the fall. A championship is a championship. This gives us a lot of confidence that we can play with anybody. I think we’re not that much of a secret anymore. I think everybody knows we can play a little bit.”

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