Top Seeds March On In 1st Round Of Black Madness Shootout

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The 2015 HSBN March Madness Shootout presented by Galeo spices kicked off on Saturday, with all 32 teams in action. While the Gold bracket saw upsets aplenty, the Black bracket had the top teams hold serve, with seven of the top eight teams advancing the second round in the winners bracket.

The top seed in the tourney, Hialeah Educational Academy, used a last inning rally to avoid being upset at the hands of #16 Archbishop Carroll. #2 Coral Glades and #3 SLAM also received scares, but survived with one-run wins.

Joining the top three in the second round on Monday will be #4 North Broward Prep, #5 Coral Springs, #6 Alonzo Mourning, #8 Mater Lakes Academy, and #10, Hialeah Gardens, who pulled off the only uspet of the first round, knocking off #7 Chaminade-Madonna.

Below is a recap of all the Black bracket games from Saturday. Enjoy!

(1) Hialeah Educational Academy 6, (16) Archbishop Carroll 5: Peter Baldrich and the rest of his offense rescued the team from the big upset bid, as top-ranked Hialeah Educational scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to walk off 6-5 to victory in the early-morning battle of Bulldogs. Baldrich singled to start the seventh, and Tony Gonzalez-Fumes walked to put the go-ahead run on base. Kenny Goodrich out the ball in play, and Baldrich scored on the miscue. An Angel Estevez RBI single to center plated Gonzalez-Fumes to end the comeback.

While pleased to leave with the victory, Hialeah Educational Manager Reggie Rodriguez admitted he expects his guys to be more prepared in a tournament such as this.

“No matter the record, no matter the team, we have to make sure not to take anybody lightly and to play hard,” Rodriguez said. “We have to treat every team we are playing like they are the number one. That’s the bottom-line. We’ll take a ‘W’ anytime, but hopefully next time we’ll come out from the beginning a lot harder than we did today. They took a team lightly today, and you can’t do that in baseball. Any team can win any day.”

Hialeah Educational will face Mater Lakes in the Black Bracket Quarterfinals.

(2) Coral Glades 4, (15) Fort Lauderdale 3: After coming back from a two-run deficit to tie things up, the Jaguars took the lead in the fifth when Michael Grey drove Alex Lara home for the winning run. Alex Lara reached on a bunt single and then advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Johnathan Hook, and moved to third on a fielder’s choice from Joe Juliano.

“Michael Grey got a base hit to score Lara, and that turned out to be the winning run,” Coral Glades Manager Mike Goulette said. “It was a hard-fought win.”

(3) SLAM Academy 4, (14) South Plantation 3: Jeter Downs was 4-for-4 with a double, stolen base, two RBIs and a run to lead the Titans. Brian Frias and Jonathan Fernandez both collected two hits and Brian Vargas scored twice for SLAM.

South Plantation had a nice showing at the plate, piling up 14 hits. Aaron Sigal was 3-for-4 to lead the way, and Andrew Hugele and Dylan Arnett both went 2-for-4. Ernie Osteen was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, an RBI and a run.

(8) Mater Lakes Academy 6, (9) South Miami 1: Rene Arauz struck out eight over six strong innings to lead the Bears. Arauz allowed one unearned run on three hits, and Ricky Hernandez struck out the side to close out the seventh.

“The team is executing very well, and we have got a nice streak going,” Mater Lakes Manager Cesar Temes said. “We are starting to come into our own, understanding our strengths and using them.”

Joseph Fernandez was 1-for-2 with a run and Perry Wilson had a double for the Cobras.

(6) Mourning 4, (11) LaSalle 3: Aaron Petrash executed on a suicide-squeeze play in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Sharks to the walk-off victory. Max Liff singled to start the inning, and was replaced by courtesy-runner Jose Marquez. Brandon Rios singled and Fabian Ortega walked to load the bases, where Petrash dropped the risky bunt play down to plate Marquez with the winning run.

“These boys don’t know how to quit. They make me feel young again,” said Sharks Manager Edwin Bonilla.

Liff was 2-for-3, and Marcel Guardarrama had an RBI single.

Cristian Cabezas went 2-for-3 with a run and Frank Ortega was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs for the Lions.

(5) Coral Springs 4, (12) Key Gate Charter 2: Phil Quinn pitched a solid outing to lead the way for the Colts. The right-hander had six strikeouts, and struck out the side in the fifth. Coral Springs scored three in the fifth to pull ahead 4-0, before holding off the Knights valiant effort for a come back.

“We did what we had to do to win,” Coral Springs Manager Frank Bumbales said. “We did enough to win. We pitched well, but we did not play that good on defense. They didn’t get hits when we needed to, so we were able to hold them form scoring. They had quite a few guys on base but we kept them down and didn’t let them score until the sixth and seventh inning. By that time we had pushed across four.”

Omar Baldo was 3-for-3 with a walk and a run to lead Keys Gate Charter.

(10) Hialeah Gardens 11, (7) Chaminade-Madonna 8 (8 innings): Arthur Cordovez was 3-for-5 with a run to lead the Gladiators in the extra-inning victory. Ramon Garcia went 2-for-5 and Damian Escandell was 1-for-2 with a run for Hialeah Gardens.

“Today we found a way to win,” Gladiators Manager Tino Burgos said. “The easy thing for us would have been to have lain down and let things open up. We gave ourselves a chance and things fell in our favor. It was a great team win. Hopefully we can build on this.”

(4) North Broward Prep 12, (13) Miami Sunset 2: Kevin Thomas was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs to lead the Eagles to the big victory. Jared Schwait went 3-for-4 with two runs and Anthony Masiello and Nick Bohrer both added two hits each.

Erick Orbella was 2-for-3 and Marc Romero was 1-for-2 with a double for the Knights.

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