Douglas Holds Off Coral Springs Rally In 8A-11

In the second contest of the 8A-11 tournament, top-seeded Douglas took on tournament host Coral Springs Tuesday night. A late rally by the host Colts almost put them on top, but Douglas proved victorious with a 5-3 victory.

Douglas sophomore Jesus Lazardo was on the bump Tuesday. The team and district strikeout leader used his curveball and changeup to keep the Colts hitters off balance most of the night. His opponent, Michael Montalvo, had a couple tough innings and surrendered the loss, but also had good stuff early in the contest. Both starters worked quickly through the first two innings.

After slugging its way past the Colts in both regular season meetings, Tuesday the Eagles got their offense came from the bottom of the lineup. Douglas drew the first to draw blood in the third. Eighth-hitter Devin Conn led the inning off with a triple, which brought up Daniel Ruiz, who walked. Tyler Morris singled and Dominic Dicaprio drove a single to left, driving in both Conn and Ruiz.

“Having that kind of consistency from guys down in the lineup in playoffs is going to be big for us,” said Douglas Manager Todd Fitzgerald. “I told the guys what happened the last twenty-two games didn’t matter and to go out and have fun at the plate.” 

In the fourth, Jesus Luzardo really seemed to be in a groove. He allowed only three base runners through four innings, and after a leadoff triple by Davis Alessio, he shut the Coral Springs offense down, striking out two in the process.

Montalvo came out in the fourth as well and worked quickly 1-2-3 to bring his team up in the top of the fifth. Montalvo led off with a walk, but was cut short by a double play off the bat of Colton Smith. Another Alessio base-hit started a two-out rally for the Colts, but a pop-out to short ended the sparks.

Douglas tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. A leadoff walk by Conn brought up the nine-hole hitter Ruiz who looked to third for the signs. With nobody out and a man on first, Ruiz was bunting. He fouled both pitches off, and then got the green light from Douglas Manager Todd Fitzgerald. Ruiz then drove an inside pitch over the left wall for his first career high school home run, putting Douglas up 4-0 through five innings of ball.

Luzardo again worked ahead in counts and allowed only a hit to Alessio in the sixth. Conn then connected for a triple, and a throwing error into the Springs dugout gave him home for the fifth and final run for Douglas on the evening.

Luzardo came out in the top of the seventh having allowed only five base runners all night. He got a quick flyout to start the inning off, but faced quite a bit of adversity for the rest of the inning. Ryan Uber walked and up came Mason Stage, who tripled and drove Uber in for the Colts’ first run of the night.

Colton Smith followed and drove Stage in with another base hit, bringing the Colts within three. Another sharp line-drive down the third-base line by Phillip Quinn brought Coral Springs within two, but Luzardo was able to work out of the jam to secure the Eagles victory.

“Jesus gave us a great 7 innings effort,” said Fitzgerald. “Jesus’ pitch count was up a little bit but he battled and he wasn’t coming out. He didn’t execute a couple pitches, but he had solid defense behind him and worked out of jams.”

Douglas now looks ahead to a Thursday night match up against Taravella for the 8A-11 title.

“We finally handled adversity and we didn’t let it beat us,” said Fitzgerald. “We had great swings all night long and we had great approaches at the plate.”

Coral Springs manager Frank Bumbales spoke on the enthusiasm and chemistry of his team this year, and looks forward to building on his young core group of returning players.

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