Bautista’s Home Run Lifts Taravella To 2-1 District Win Against South Plantation

In the real tight ball games, it is usually the team which can limit its mistakes that emerges victorious.

Taravella epitomized that point by putting in an error-free performance for a 2-1 victory over host South Plantation on Thursday afternoon.

The Trojans (3-0) won their District 8A-11 opener behind a stout defense, solid pitching and a strong performance at the plate from catcher Julio Bautista.

Bautista broke a 1-1 tie leading off the top of the fourth inning by crushing the first pitch he saw over the left field fence for the winning home run. The junior slugger also gave the Trojans an early lead with a sacrifice fly that scored Lino Bravo in the top of the first inning.

But the real story on the day was the play of the Taravella defense, which overcame several threats from the Paladins (1-2, 0-2) by putting in a flawless performance.

“This group was together last year so now they are a year older and they just gel well together,” Trojans Manager Alan Clark said. “We work on a lot of situations so that way they all know what to do in certain spots in the game. Our intensity really wasn’t there today, but we did a good job of battling through that.”

Right-hander Brady Acker earned the victory on the mound, after throwing 70 pitches through four innings of work. The junior held South Plantation to a pair of hits and a pair of walks while striking out eight to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Junior Chris Verardi pitched a perfect seventh inning to earn the save.

Despite the loss, South Plantation Manager Ken Gomez was satisfied that his team was able to put itself into position to win all the way to its final at bats.

“We were 2-8 in the district last year. So the goal this year is to stay within a run and give ourselves a chance to win the game,” Gomez said. “We had that, but we were just one hit away from doing it.”

The Paladins last scoring chance came in the bottom of the sixth inning after left fielder Sal Rodriguez led off with a single and then stole second and third base to get within ninety feet of home plate.

“Sal Rodriguez is a great base stealer,” Coach Gomez said. “He gets great jumps, and he got on and got himself to third with no outs. We just didn’t come up with a hit.”

Trojans sophomore reliever Justin Walker recorded back-to-back strikeouts, and then got Jose Fernandez to ground out to escape the threat unscathed and turn the ball over to Verardi.

“Our pitchers did a great job of making pitches when they needed to,” Clark said. “We pitched out of a couple of jams.”

South Plantation scored its only run of the contest in the second inning. Steven Seager shortened his swing and slapped the ball through the right side for a leadoff single, and Fernandez followed two batters later by lacing the ball over third base for a standup double that out both runners in scoring position.

Seager then crossed home when Acker was called for a balk.

Brian Llorente was 2-for-3 with a double in the contest, accounting for nearly half of the Paladins offense.

Junior starter Ryan Terrill was the workhorse for South Plantation, throwing 109 pitches through five innings. The righty allowed one earned run, while scattering five hits and five walks and recording five strikeouts.

With South Plantation learning that junior closer Nick Gado will miss the rest of the season with an injury, the team recently promoted freshman Zach Birchall from the junior varsity team. In the top of the sixth inning Gomez decided to put the youngster in and see what he could do.

“I felt nervous since it was my first game,” Birchall admitted. “Luckily my brother Dustin was playing third base to guide me through. He told me to just calm down, take a breath and relax. It got me through it.”

With help from his big brother, the freshman earned his team stripes by throwing two scoreless innings to give the Paladins a fighting chance until the end.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!