Palmetto in Control of 8A District 16 After Taking Down South Dade

Palmetto head coach Danny Smith prides himself on making sure his team does the little things right. On Tuesday night, the #4 Panthers (8-1) did just enough of those little things to manufacture a few runs to eke out a big 3-2 win against their undefeated district rival, the #5 South Dade Buccaneers (8-1-1).

On a windy evening at South Dade, visiting Palmetto was led by pitcher Brandon Kacer, who got out of a number of jams on the mound, and sparked his team two separate times at the plate.

In the top half of the second inning it was William Schilling who sparked things for Palmetto with a lead off double down the right-field line. Nick Gruener executed a perfect bunt to third base and ran it out for a single. He advanced to second on the play after an error, putting runners on second and third. Davis Marchus then hit a groundball to short, allowing Schilling to score the first run of the game. Kacer then got an RBI with a line drive just over the reach of the South Dade second baseman, bringing in Gruener and making it 2-0.

“We are a team that is going to play baseball the way it is supposed to be played,” Palmetto coach Danny Smith said. “We are going to move runners with bunts, sacrifice flies and some base hits.”

South Dade made things interesting in the bottom half of the third by getting four hits in the inning. Joey Rivera and David Lugo started things off with back-to-back singles and got themselves in scoring position. Rivera scored on a wild pitch. Lugo scored on a Brandon Thomas groundball to second. However, the Buccaneers ran themselves out of a great opportunity to score more runs when a base-runner was picked off at third by the catcher, leaving the bases loaded, the score still tied at two.

South Dade starting pitcher Adam Roush had a productive night on the mound despite getting the loss. He pitched a complete game, allowed five hits and forced Palmetto to hit plenty of routine groundballs and pop flies.

In the fifth inning, Kacer got his team excited when he laid down a bunt that he ran out for a single. He was moved over to second after a sacrifice bunt from Johnny Perez. Joey Millanes came in to run for Kacer and came around to score on Matt Majewski’s game-winning RBI double down the left-field line.

“I think my bunt single really energized the team today, and I was happy I could contribute like that,” Kacer said.

Kacer battled his way out of another bases-loaded jam in the bottom half of the fifth. He got some help from Majewski again, this time at third base when he knocked down a hard-hit ball down the line and tagged third for the final out of the inning.

“In my three years on varsity at Palmetto,” Kacer said, “I have never been a part of a true team like this, and we have something special here and we just need to keep battling.”

Riley Delgado came in for to pitch for Palmetto with two outs in the sixth. Delgado took command of his pitches to get out of the inning and then got two quick outs in the seventh. However, after an error and a single by South Dade’s David Lebron, things were becoming too close for coach Smith’s liking. But he let things play out and Delgado shook off the mistakes and struck out the next batter to end the game.

“If we continue to play small ball like we are and get our defense together, we can be a pretty good team,” Smith said.

The victory was special for the whole Palmetto team, but especially for Smith.

“South Dade is a great team and are really well coached and I respect them a lot,” Smith said. “Coach Burnside is my old high school coach, so it’s tough when you beat your old coach, but it’s a good win for us and puts us in the driver’s seat for the district.”

Palmetto now leads 8A District 16 with a 5-0 record, while South Dade has dropped to 3-1-1 in district play.

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