Coral Gables Defeats Reagan To Advance To 8A District 14 Final

By game time, the blistering Miami sun had set and the shivering night had settled, but the only thing colder than the wind-chill factor was Dillon Maya.

Maya, the Coral Gables ace, gave up just four hits and struck out eight in six innings as the Cavaliers defeated the Reagan Bison 8-2 on Monday in the 8A District 14 semifinals.

Gables will play Goleman on Thursday night at St. Thomas University for the title.

The Ronald Reagan-Doral Senior High Bison had beaten Coral Gables early on in the season, but two times would prove too difficult with Maya on the mound.

“He’s been our horse,” Cavs coach Phillip Wisser said about Maya. “He was on cruise-control, his off-speed pitches looked better. It was a great win, but more importantly, we get to advance and play in the district championship, and try to bring home our first title since two years ago.”

The Cavaliers snatched an early lead after Robert Montes drove in courtesy-runner Raymond Gonzalez.

The Cavs continued to bring in runs in the third. Alex Pinero came up with the bases loaded and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to center field. Coral Gables again loaded the bases and Imad Reinoso’s hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Antonio Rodriguez to make it 4-0.

Reagan was able to get three of their four hits in the fourth inning as Luis Rincon, Joe Diaz and Sergio Menendez all singled. Maya walked Edgar Pages with the bases loaded, and the Bison scored two runs and were rallying before the Cavs forced a 1-2-5 double play and a strikeout by Maya to escape the inning.

“I had to make the adjustments,” Maya said. “Just finishing the off-speed, and then I got the batters off balanced. I just felt good going through the game”

The Cavaliers proceeded with their scoring binge as Rodriguez drove in a run with his single in the fourth, and in his next at-bat Rodriguez hit a two-run homer. Maya then added to the lead when he brought in Pinero with a RBI single.

“I saw it right down the middle, and I just wanted to crush it,” Rodriguez said. “Actually, before the pitch, they had made a deal with me that if I hit it out, I was gonna get lunch for the whole week, so I was like ‘Alright, I’ll take advantage of that.’ “

Maya struck out two more batters in the sixth inning and picked up the win, but after a high pitch count, Maya was relieved by Luke Sorensen to close out the game.

“We work on bringing guys in on scoring positions, but we didn’t get it done today,” Reagan coach Jessy Rodriquez said. “They just made more plays. It’s been the story of our season.”

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