Kan, Chavez Propel Somerset Past University 2-0

District Playoff Gallery

At times Luis Chavez may have been down on himself for his struggles throughout the year, but his team never doubted him one bit. With the playoffs now here, the Somerset catcher rewarded that faith by putting in a stellar performance on both sides of the field. The sophomore drove in both runs of the contest and also made two spectacular defensive plays late in the action to lift Somerset to a 2-0 victory over University School, in a 4A-14 quarterfinal played at Ian Beisner Field on the Nova Southeastern University campus in Davie.

The Panthers (13-11) will now face Chaminade-Madonna in a semifinal on Wednesday. The Lions advanced after beating Calvary Christian in another quarterfinal played late Monday night.

With his club clinging to the slim lead and the Suns (15-11) making a late push, Chavez made two great catches on foul pops in which he had to slide against the fence and make the catch on his back to record both crucial outs in each of the final two frames.

“It’s just see it and run after it, and when you see the fence, you slide. That was what I was taught to do,” Chavez said after the game.

Yet as big as those defensive plays were in such a tight ball game where every out was critical for his team, the backstop admitted that it meant much more to him to be able to come through on the offensive side of things. Chavez was 3-for-3 in the contest while hitting out of the bottom spot in the order. Although he has not hit well this year he admitted afterwards that his big day was more rewarding because of what it meant for his team rather than just for himself.

“The seniors on this team, I just love them with all of my heart, so I tried to do it for them like they have every day,” Chavez said. “It feels great to have at least one more game with these seniors. We’ve had trouble bringing people in, so I was just trying to have a good two-strike approach, sail it up the middle and do my job as a player. I just see ball, hit ball.”

Although he is not one of those seniors on the club, another team veteran who Chavez was able to reward Monday was third baseman John Ham. From the very start of the game it was impossible not to recognize the energy and enthusiasm that Ham exhibited in every second he was on the field, and in the top of the second inning he channeled that through his bat to surprise the Suns by dropping a great bunt down the third baseline for a leadoff single. After Mike Van Degna smacked a single to right field to move Ham into scoring position, Chavez lined a single up the middle to bring him home for the deciding score.

After that slim advantage held up into the top of the sixth, Chavez delivered again when he blasted a shot into the left-center field gap to drive home Kenny Moreno-Costa for an insurance run. Moreno-Costa had re-entered the game after Franco Perdomo sent a pinch-hit single up the middle to start things off in the frame.

“We’ve always believed Luis is a good hitter, and he was just in a little bit of a funk. But I knew he would come through at some point and what a better day than today to come through,” Somerset Manager Onel Garcia said of his backstop. “He’s definitely a really good player and he’s been our starting catcher all year. Defensively he is great and if he starts mixing it up offensively too he will be a really great player. He’s only a sophomore and we’re really happy to have him.”

Coming into the contest Garcia was confident that his team could get the job done as long as they could muster just a little bit of offense. The primary reason for this confidence came in knowing the Panthers were putting left-hander Alejandro Kan on the mound for the big game.

“The way Alejandro has pitched all year we don’t need too many runs,” said Garcia. “He has been really outstanding at keeping us in games all year.”

Kan proved up to the task to reward that faith, going the distance to earn the win on the mound. The southpaw scattered four hits and three walks, while recording four strikeouts. The senior has been a very gritty and hard-nosed starter all season, and Monday he was his usual tough self. Kan was also backed by a defense that committed just one error.

While it was a win the Panthers have worked to be in position for all season, Garcia could not help but feel empathy for the host Suns.

“It was hard to play against my good friend Danny Rovetto, because he is a great coach and I thought he did a great job with University this year,” Garcia admitted. “But man, this district is crazy and games go down to the wire. We had our chances; we got 10 hits and we had bases loaded and nobody out and we couldn’t get anybody in. It gets frustrating at times; this whole year our batting average with runners on base has not been very good. So it was great that Luis came through clutch today.”

The Suns showed just how much they also wanted the victory by coming up big to escape that bases-loaded jam unscathed in the fifth. Chavez, Derek Cartaya and Christian Khawly all singled to start off the frame, filling the bases with no outs. University buckled down from there, as starter Freddie Sultan recorded a big swinging strikeout, Evan Klugerman chased down a pop foul along the third base sideline and Cameron Chafetz recorded the final out on an infield popout.

Sultan was equally impressive on the mound, as the left-hander also went the distance for his club. Sultan pounded the strike zone and was still very efficient with his pitches, throwing 69 of his 95 pitches for strikes. The southpaw challenged the Somerset order, working to put the ball in play and trust his strong defense. He recorded six strikeouts and did not walk any batters.

“He’s been a special arm, and like I said a couple of weeks back to you guys, he has kept us in every game,” Rovetto said of his ace. “Our offense has struggled tremendously this year and Fred has overcome a lot. Should we have scored some runs for him, his record would indicate just how good he has been for us. He kept us in the game today just like he did every start this season. I am truly proud of him. He’s a kid who did not log a lot of innings last year and he came in and was our horse every fifth day for us. I appreciated that for sure.”

The Suns were hitless with runners in scoring position and were unable to generate any big innings. Jesse Crosno had the most success, going 2-for-3 on the afternoon.

Rovetto took over the program this season, and he admitted that it was a struggle at times. Since the team had very low overall numbers, there were times they had to send many guys down to play in jv games in order to field enough guys for that team too. This limited the number of guys at some practices, and added a greater challenge to have chances to teach and instruct each one as much as the coaching staff would have preferred. Yet through all of that, it helped to bring about a stronger team bond and get everyone on the same page.

“I am really proud of what we did this year,” Rovetto said. “We’ve come a long way as a program, just our mentality and how we go about things on a daily basis. We talk about the life lessons, and we have had a lot of them. As many wins as we had this year I think we taught just as many life lessons as well within that frame. That is really what it’s about. Obviously I am disappointed; everybody wants to win at the end. But I’m happy with the progress that we made as a program. So this has been a very challenging experience, but it has been rewarding at the same time.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!