Coral Glades Gets Big Victory Over Plantation

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Coral Glades came into Thursday night’s Game of the Week meeting with Plantation looking for a little momentum heading into the second half of the season. The club was coming off a tough district loss to Douglas and it needed some positives to build back off of.

The host Jaguars put up runs in every inning to storm to a 12-2 victory. Every guy in the lineup contributed and the team got exactly the sort of production it had hoped for when it took the field at Coral Springs Regional Park for Throw-Back Jersey Night.

“Teams like this, it is either going to work to your advantage or they are going to sneak up and beat you,” Jaguars Manager Mike Goulette said. “Tonight we came out ready to play. It was a bounce-back from Douglas, so I’m glad to see that we hit the ball. The top of the order did their jobs. We were able to get our young-guns in to get some playing time. It is all going to come down to not making mistakes, so hopefully we can ride this wave and start building up some wins again.”

Plantation jumped up 1-0 with its first swings, as Chris Montes doubled to left field and scored on a fielder’s choice RBI off the bat of Jonathan Coval. But after that the Jaguars (9-4) went to work.

Coral Glades scored seven straight to take control. Everyone got in on the action, with Alex Lara smacking a pair of doubles and scoring twice, Jonathan Hook hitting two doubles and Juan Rodriguez contributing two RBI singles.

“It’s like the domino affect; once one thing happens everybody gets riled up and people just start hitting between gaps,” said Preston Vegotsky, who had a pair of RBI singles. “It’s almost like a spirit with us, and it’s always fun when this happens. It’s not like any other game. I know a lot of us have been struggling with the bats, especially myself. But we all worked a lot during practice today, and we all agreed that this was our game.”

Coral Glades starter TJ Densmore also staked his own victory by reaching base three times, capped by a big, two-RBI double in the second. The big lead made it easier for the right-hander to relax on the mound, and focus on throwing strikes and recording outs.

“I didn’t have my stuff today, but knowing we had that lead and what this team can do behind me made me feel comfortable,” Densmore said. “I can just go out there and throw whatever I want to throw to get the outs and get back into the dugout. I struggled against Douglas, so I had to come back here and go strong and get back into the groove.”

Making his fourth start of the season, Densmore tossed four solid innings to pick up the victory and improve to 2-0. The junior scattered six hits and three walks, while striking out three and allowing two earned runs.

The Colonels (3-8) answered back against Densmore and the Jaguars to scratch a run across in the third. Center fielder Tyler Price drew his second walk of the game, building on an impressive on-base percentage over .600 that he brought into the game. Price then showcased his speed by easily reaching third base when Coval followed with a gap-shot to left-center field, and Jeremy De La Cruz grounded out to third to push him across the plate.

The Jaguars got an extra thing to be excited about in the bottom of the third inning, when sophomore Josh Hernandez earned his first career hit on a solo home run to right field. Leading off the inning, the left-handed hitter worked the count full and put a good swing on a pitch he will never forget.

“I wasn’t expecting to do that. I was just watching the ball and trying to make contact,” Hernandez admitted. “I have been striking out almost every game, so I was trying to do something to help my team. I had a 3-2 count so I was trying to make contact. I wasn’t expecting it to go over; I thought it was going to go foul. Then it stayed fair and it felt good. It is good motivation.”

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