Coral Glades’ Dominguez Stares Down Perfection

It was the bottom of the seventh, and all you could hear were whispers around the stands, “nobody’s reached first base.” Taravella went to the plate 18 times and was unable to reach base safely in any of the 18 attempts.

As the away team’s fans cheered when Christian Dominguez took the mound three outs away from perfection, the home crowd had a bittersweet feeling and hoped a comeback was in order.

Senior Joseph Libio stepped into the box and looked to play spoiler for the Trojans. Dominguez, whom had struck out Libio on his previous two at-bats, got him to fly out to center for 19 in-a-row.

Two outs away, Trojans Nik Sanders jumped on the first fastball he saw and belted a ball to deep center. First reaction off-the bat was a routine pop fly, but as the winds kept pushing and the ball stayed in the air, the center fielder continued to drift deeper and deeper towards the warning track. After what felt like an eternity, finally the ball came down from the sky and bounced off the fence. Sanders reached safely with a double and represented the first base runner allowed by Dominguez.

“I can’t be selfish, I mean its hard not to be,” said Dominguez. “I was just so close and only two-outs away. The funny thing is I got a ground ball out that next batter right after that. I cant complain, I did awesome, my team did a great job tonight and we got the win.”

Dominguez put on a clinic in front of scouts and fans in a third straight district road win for the Jaguars. Dominguez was two-outs shy of a perfect game, and pitched his heart out in a night he won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

“He did an outstanding job and I tip my hat to him. He also did it at the plate with a big run, and in the first inning getting things going. Outstanding job by the young man,” said Coral Glades Manager Jorge Miranda about his ace pitcher.

Dominguez struck out five, allowed two seventh-inning hits, and walked none in his complete-game win for the Jaguars.

“We have to give their pitcher credit,” said Trojans Assistant Coach Tommy Colaro. “He mixed the ball up well, and pounded the zone all night. He had a perfect game going into one-out in the seventh inning, you have to take your hats off to him.”

Jaguars Manager Jorge Miranda was one of the first to also tip his cap to his starter.

“Christian has been our ace all year. He is short on stature, but he’s big on heart,” said Miranda. “He’s had some tough-luck loses in the beginning of the year, but he’s starting to throw the ball really well. We were two outs away from a perfect game tonight; they hit the ball well in the last inning. But once that went out the wayside, all we wanted to do was get the win. It puts us in a good spot at 5-3 in the district.”

The win came at a high time for the Jaguars giving them their third straight road win against a district foe. Beating district co-leader Douglas and Deerfield Beach last week, they came into Tuesday and beat the number one team in the district to really shake things up.

“It was a rocky start to this season, we lost 12 players in a matter of two months. Now we’re finally starting to jell,” said Dominguez. “Coming into the season, I didn’t even know half of my teammates names. They came up from JV and were thrown into the mix. Now we’re coming off the D.L, were healthy and playing together. I can’t complain about anything; we’re playing good ball right now.”

In the first, Coral Glades made their presence known right away when Andrew Sheinbaum doubled over an outfielders head. Dominguez reached on an error, and with two-outs sophomore Alex Lara lifted a ball off the center field fence for a two-run double.

Justin Walker held Coral Glades scoreless for the next two innings, until the fourth when a two-out double off the bat of sophomore TJ Densmore gave the Jaguars their first scoring opportunity since the first. Preston Vegotsky capitalized with an RBI single, and gave the Jaguars a 3-0 lead.

The Jaguars added on two in the fifth and one in the seventh to extend their lead to six.

“It’s a matter of executing, and we executed well tonight,” said Miranda. “Sacrifice bunts and putting the ball in play. We cut down on the strikeouts from the last time we played and put pressure on their defense. We struggled with the bats in the middle-third of the season. Like a good friend of mine Sergios Ambros of West Broward, he talks to their guys about dividing the season into thirds. This is the last third of the season for us and we always preach get better every day. To go into district play-offs playing some good fundamental sound baseball is a plus for us.”

As their district schedule comes to an end, Coral Glades waits for the other teams to duke it out and see what seed they will receive in the tournament. For the Jaguars, who won four of their last six, they slowly become the hunted in their district instead of doing a majority of the hunting.

“We were fortunate to come into their places and beat these clubs,” said Miranda. “To move-on in the playoffs, you need to have that playoff atmosphere and be able to go on the road and beat big teams. I’m very thankful and extremely proud of these guys.”

Taravella scored one run in the seventh on two hits to erase Dominguez’ shutout.

For the Trojans, Tuesday’s game was unable to change the losing pattern since their spring break tournament in Sarasota. Losing six of their last seven and two-big district losses, the Trojans try to find their winning ways as the post-season approaches.

“We hit a few balls hard, but couldn’t get nothing going at all,” said Coach Colero. “They jumped on us with two in the first. In a district game like this and you’re playing well, that could be all you need. They just beat Douglas also, and they are starting to get hot at the right time. A few bad losses since the tournament and we just haven’t been able to get it going since then. We’ve been struggling against some good teams. No one hit the panic button just yet, and there is still a couple more games before district play. We have Coral Springs later on this week, and hopefully we get the bats going then.”

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