South Dade Finishes Tournament With Big Win Against Hialeah

Editor’s Note – Photos are not allowed to be taken at South Dade – Sorry :-(

Hialeah ended South Dade’s season a year ago in the regional finals, but Friday night, the Buccaneers were able to get a little revenge on the Thoroughbreds in their final game of the Selective Recruiting/Sir Pizza Invitational.

Buccaneers starting pitcher David Lebron took control of the strike zone early and helped his team get the 5-2 victory. Lebron pitched a complete game while shutting down the Hialeah bats for most of the night. He finished with 12 strikeouts and allowed four hits.

“Any time you beat a Hialeah teamm you should feel good about yourself,” South Dade coach John Burnside said. “They are a spunky and energetic team, very well-coached, and this win was good for us going forward for the rest of the season.”

Lebron set the the tone of the game in the first inning as he threw strikes and sat down the first three batters in order, two by the strikeout.

However, the second inning proved to be Lebron’s one difficult inning. Jeff Izquierdo led off for Hialeah with a hard-hit single to left field. Jorge Rey came up next with a double to put runners on second and third. Rey was the most consistent hitter for Hialeah as he went 2-for-3 with a double, single and run. The Thoroughbreds took advantage of the situation as Lian Roque drove in both runs with a single to right field.

“Main thing tonight was just trying to keep Hialeah off balance with some off-speed stuff,” Lebron said. “I had trouble early getting it in there for strikes, but I was able to make minor adjustments and throw strikes.”

After a couple nice plays Lebron settled down get out of the inning with only the two runs scored.

The Buccaneers came fighting right back in the bottom half of the inning with back-to-back doubles from Anthony Dowling and Shane Castro to score and cut the lead to 2-1 after two innings.

South Dade had a big inning at the plate in the fourth to build a nice lead for Lebron. Shane Castro came up with another big hit to start the rally. Lebron came up later and helped his cause with an RBI double. Joey Rivera and David Lugo both had RBI singles in the inning to add to the scoring. After the fourth, the Buccaneers found themselves with a 4-2 lead.

Rivera and Lugo did some more damage in the sixth. Rivera hit a line drive directly over first base for a double. He advanced to third after a passed ball. Lugo was up next at the plate, and hit a moon shot into right center field for a sacrifice fly that allowed Rivera to add an insurance run, making the game 5-2.

Lebron went out to take the mound in the seventh to finish off the game, and he did just that. He ended his night very similar to how he started as he struck out all three batters in order.

South Dade finished the Selective Recruiting Invitational with a record of 3-1. Burnside was happy with the progress he saw from his team throughout the tournament.

“The tournament has been great the past two years, and the competition is fierce,” Burnside said. “We are better now at the end of the week then we were going into it, and that’s the main goal.”

Although Hialeah finished 2-2 on the week, assistant coach Jonathan Hernandez also was proud of his club and believes his team got some good experience from these tough games.

“We made some great strides this week and were able to see some things that we hadn’t seen earlier,” Hernandez said. “We played quality ball clubs all week and hopefully this experience will help us out towards the end.”

Four of the next five games for each team are against district opponents.

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