Southwest Uses Big Third and Fourth Innings To Blow Past Ferguson

Southwest Miami’s Alexis Cuevas drives in four runs and a key double in the third to build a big lead in Thursday’s win.

After a successful Spring Break week in the Selective Recruiting Invitational in which Southwest Miami lost in the championship game, the Eagles have been on a roll, finding a way to win two close district games.

Thursday’s game was a little different as Southwest Miami had two huge offensive innings to beat the Ferguson Falcons 14-3.

“It was just getting some momentum and getting the bats going for us really,” Southwest Miami coach Jose Torres said. “It’s rare for us to score 14 runs in our district since every team is so good, but it’s nice to have a big win.”

It was Senior Day at Ferguson and each senior baseball player was honored with their parents before the game at home plate as they were playing their last home game as a Falcon. Unfortunately for this group of seniors, the last-home-game memories were not exactly what they wanted.

The Falcons started off the game solidly. Jesus Fuenmayor and Chris Medina executed a hit-and-run to perfection as Medina hit the ball to right field and got runners on first and third with one out in the first inning. Carlos Tapia came up and tripled to clear the bases and scored on a Luis Paublini double to give the Falcons an early 3-0 lead.

However, things completely changed in the third inning as the Eagles batted around the lineup and scored eight runs to take a 9-3 lead. Southwest Miami capitalized on a number of errors that extended the inning and also received some timely hits with runners in scoring position to get the big lead.

Luis Gutierrez, Alex Mangano and Alex Perera hit RBI singles in the third for the Eagles, but it was Alexis Cuevas’ double with the bases loaded that drove in three that drained the energy out of the Falcons. Cuevas finished the afternoon with four RBI.

“We’ve been struggling at the plate for the most part, so we were just trying to do our job and put the ball in play, and things happen,” Cuevas said. “One guy started the rally, and we just fed off of it and kept it going to score some runs.”

Eagles’ pitcher Marcos Barrios gets off to rocky start but shuts down Falcons for remainder of the game.

The Eagles continued to drive in runs in the fourth. After a number of walks, Perera hit a double to right center to drive in two. Carlos Peña dropped the ball in for a single and brought in two more before the inning was over. Southwest was in total control with a big 14-3 lead after four innings, and the game ended in the fifth by the high school 10-run rule.

“We just didn’t make enough plays and gave a good team extra opportunities to hurt us,” Ferguson head coach Jose Novas said. “It’s going to be difficult to keep any team from scoring with so many errors, and they did a great job with timely hits and played flawless defensively, which was the biggest difference.”

On top of the great offensive showing, Southwest also got a good outing from its ace, Marcos Barrios. Barrios struggled in the first, giving up three runs on three hits but bounced back to shut down the Falcons the rest of the way. Barrios forced a number of ground balls and got some nice help from Luis Aviles at shortstop, who had a few nice defensive plays to help get out of innings quickly.

“Marcos gives us a chance to win every time because if he has a bad inning, I know he is going to hold them down the rest of the way,” Torres said. “He’s a tough kid and a strong kid physically, so I know he can go a long way.”

Ferguson will hope to bounce back quickly since three of its remaining five games are important district games.

A big game awaits Southwest Miami on Tuesday as the Eagles take on Columbus.

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