Braddock claims South Broward Invitational Title

The Braddock Bulldogs, with their potent offense hitting its stride lately, turned that momentum into a tournament win Wednesday night as they defeated Hialeah Gardens 11-2 to claim the South Broward Spring Invitational title.

“We’re catching fire at the right time,” said coach Victor Montalvo, whose team has averaged nearly nine runs over their last six games, all wins. “It’s all starting to click and I hope we can keep it going.”

Senior Anthony Alvarez continued to swing a hot bat, going 3-for-4 with a double, three RBIs, and a pair of runs scored, while Miguel Rivera walked three times and scored three runs.

Meanwhile, starting pitcher J.J. Marcos did his job, holding the Gladiators to one run on four hits over four innings of work.

Braddock opened the scoring in the second inning when Albert Rafael, who led off the inning by getting hit with a pitch, came around to score on a J.C. Calvo sacrifice fly.

Hialeah Gardens, who scored 32 runs in their first two games of the tournament, answered immediately with a tying run in the top of the third.

Lead-off hitter Nathan Llanes, who led his team with two hits on the night, singled and stole second. A Jorge Alonso base hit moved Llanes over to third, and then a Gary Garcia sac fly brought him home.

The Bulldogs (11-4, 5-1) would respond in an even more emphatic fashion, blowing the game wide open with three runs in the third and four more in the fourth.

First-pitch singles by Willie Padron and Miguel Rivera to begin the third were followed by an Alvarez RBI double to the wall in right. Rivera then scored on a Rafael 6-3 ground out, before Alvarez crossed the plate on a wild pitch to make it a 4-1 game and chase starter Chris Suarez.

In the fourth, the first four batters all reached and ended up scoring as Calvo, Miguel Cardozo and Padron singled, and Rivera walked. Alvarez’s two-run single through the right side was the big blow.

“He’s having a nice season, and is one of our captains,” said Montalvo of Alvarez, who is hitting over .400.

The Gladiators (11-8, 5-1) scored their second run in the fifth inning when Llanes scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 8-2, but three runs from the Bulldogs in the sixth put away any chance of a comeback.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t the result we wanted, but we still hit the ball hard,” said Hialeah Gardens manager Tino Burgos. “We just fell behind and put ourselves in a situation where we had to claw back against a good team.”

With a huge district contest against Miami Senior coming up next week, Burgos knows what his team must do to win that game and move towards clinching the top seed in 8A-14.

“We need to get better pitching, throw more strikes, and let our defense make plays.”

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