Somerset Gets Much-Needed 4A-13 Win Against CS Charter

Somerset Academy took advantage of wild pitches and passed balls to go along with four hits in a big fifth inning as it rallied to beat Coral Springs Charter 8-6 in a 4A-13 match-up Monday at Broward College.

“We took advantage of some of their mistakes,” said Somerset Manager Onel Garcia. “We put the ball in play, which is important for us. We’ve been leaving a lot of runners on base, but today we had a lot of unselfish hitting.”

Brandon Acavedo led Somerset (4-6, 1-4) on offense, going 3-for-4, including a base hit in the big fifth inning.

Both teams went scoreless for the first two innings before Coral Springs Charter (6-5, 4-3) got on the board with three runs.

Leadoff hitter Jorge Solano hit a scorching line drive to center field for a double. After one out and with Solano in scoring position, shortstop Luis Guillorme singled to right field and advanced to second as Solano rounded third and scored on an errant throw to home, which also allowed Guillorme to get to third. Left fielder Brandon Laboy then hit a standup RBI triple to left field, and Laboy scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch.

Somerset responded quickly in the bottom of the the third by producing a run. With one out and nobody on base, Acevedo blasted his second hit of the night to left center to put himself on second. He advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and scored courtesy of a hard-hit, line-drive double to right field by first baseman Chris Medina, who then went to third on a wild pitch but was left stranded after a strikeout to end the inning.

Charter scored one more run in the fifth and two in the top of the sixth, but it would not be enough to close the gap.

“We didn’t make the plays we needed to make. We didn’t eliminate the big inning,” Coral Springs Charter Manager Dan Rovetto said. “You win high school baseball games when you don’t give up those crooked numbers.”

Coral Springs Charter catcher Joe McChrystal did a fine job using his body to block errant pitches but had his work cut out for him with the lack of control from the bullpen.

“We didn’t do a good job coming out of the bullpen and throwing strikers,” Rovetto said. “A lot of those balls we didn’t give our catcher an opportunity to even block those pitches.”

The Somerset bullpen allowed two runs in the top of the sixth but protected the lead by not allowing the runners at the corners to advance and striking out the last Charter batter to put an end to their aspirations of a late comeback.

Garcia was optimistic after a well-earned win.

“We needed a win against a good team, and Coral Springs is a very good team,” Garcia said. “Hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”

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