Goleman Outlasts Douglas For Eighth Straight Victory

Goleman starting pitcher Michael Pelaez and closer Jeremi Garcia were backed by some great defense for a tight 5-4 win over a tough Douglas Eagles squad. The Gators’ eighth straight win moves them on to the finals of the Dick Rushin Hall of Fame National Classic on Friday night.

“We faced a tough Douglas team that has a lot of power so our plan was to keep his breaking pitches down and throw low strikes,” Perez said. “Early in the game, his breaking stuff wasn’t working so we were a little concerned. But later in the game he was able to find it and strike some guys out in key situations.”

Douglas starter Jesus Luzardo struggled when it came to finding the strike zone early in the game, allowing the Gators to jump on him for five early runs. However, after that, Luzardo was able to settle in and allow his offense to slowly begin a comeback. From the third inning on, Luzardo only allowed two more men to get into scoring position on just two more hits.

“He was behind deep in the count to a lot of hitters the first two innigns but after that he kind of settled down and started pitching better,” Manager Todd Fitz-Gerald said. “He held us in the game for sure. He did a good job from the third inning on.”

Luzardo’s shutdown work gave the Douglas’ offense the opportunity to go to work and get the Eagles back in the game. They did so on the back of solo home runs from Kyle Shay and Brady Norris. For Shay, his fourth inning yard job marked his second RBI of the day. His first came in the second inning after a hit by pitch and a single put ducks on the pond for him, and the junior delivered a sacrifice fly.

The Eagles’ effort to claw all the way back as they fell a run short. Regarding his team coming up just short offensively, Fitz-Gerald pointed to two few hits and not enough opportunities with runners on base and also tipped his cap to the reason why they didn’t: the mound work of Pelaez and the defensive work of Barreneche.

Despite the tough loss though, Fitz-Gerald is content that his team is putting forth a competitive effort during the dog days of the season and seemed confident that the Eagles will get all of the remaining jitters out before the playoffs roll around.

“Four hits isn’t going to be enough. We had a few solo home runs but solo home runs aren’t going to beat you, either,” Fitz-Gerald said. “We didn’t get the timely hits when we needed them and wound up losing 5-4. Their guy attacked the zone all day. We got good swings on him at times but their center fielder played a great game and made some outstanding plays for them. Those plays could have been the turn in the game especially early on when we hit the ball in the gap and he made that diving play. That could have been a couple runs for us. That’s high school baseball, though. It’s the midpoint in the season, so this is the lull. We want to be clicking on all cyliders going in to the playoffs though, so we will figure it out.”

Although he was plenty proud that his team was able to take down one of Broward’s best teams for the right to advance to a championship game, Lopez withheld that now is not the time to take things for granted and let up in any way. Instead, he plans to keep the Gators focused by increasing the workload and further perfecting their game as they head towards the playoffs.

“It’s great for the program and kids to get some recognition here in Broward and in Miami-Dade as well,” Lopez said. “We are excited that we are playing great baseball right now but we still have a month to go in the season. We just want to stay concentrated on winning games and doing what we are supposed to do. We have to keep working.”

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