Maya Throws No-Hitter, Gables Advances Past Hialeah Gardens

Gables’ Dillon Maya threw a no-hitter to advance to the 8A regional semi-finals on Tuesday.

After a wild comeback finish for the Hialeah Gardens Gladiators in the district championship game, they had a week to prepare for Coral Gables in a regional quarterfinal match-up. Unfortunately for the Gladiators, the late-inning heroics did not carry over as the Cavaliers came out on top 5-0 as Dillon Maya threw the first no-hitter of his high school career.

“I just wanted to get the win no matter what,” Maya said. “I was just pitching my game and really wasn’t thinking about it at all.”

Although Maya walked a number of hitters and struggled at times with control of his fastball, he managed to work through his struggles and relied on a strong defensive performance from his teammates. Maya gained confidence and got into a nice rhythm with his curve ball and change-up to keep hitters off balance.

“It’s pretty crazy when he (Maya) can go out there and throw a no-hitter without his best stuff,” Coral Gables head coach Phillip Wisser said. “Defensively, we were great behind Maya, and we worked hard on that knowing that Hialeah Gardens was a scrappy team that wasn’t going to quit.”

Maya was able to get some run support in the top half of the fourth when Alex Piñero hustled to first for an infield single. Imad Reinoso followed with another single later on that allowed Piñero to advance to third. Reinoso then went on to steal second to get two runners in scoring position for Kelvin Nuñez. Nuñez stepped up big and hit a single back up the middle to drive in both runs with a two-strike count.

Nuñez was vital to the Cavaliers offense as he went 3-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored. Wisser commended Nuñez’s performance.

“It’s huge to get this production from our number seven hitter,” Wisser said. “Kelvin has struggled a little this season, but we have kept him in the lineup because he is so good defensively, and he showed today that he is a fighter.”

Coral Gables’ Alex Piñero digs in at the plate in the fourth inning.

Gables then added some more runs to the scoreboard in the sixth inning. After back-to-back singles from Reinoso and Nuñez, Robert Montes was able to get to first and load the bases after an error from the Gladiators’ right fielder. Pablo Rubio was able to draw a walk and bring a run to make it 3-0. Then, Nuñez took advantage of a wild pitch and scored from third. Gables scored its final run on a ground ball to the shortstop from Gerson Sotolongo that brought Montes in to make it a 5-0 game in the sixth inning.

In the bottom half of the seventh, Gladiator players and fans still had hope that they could pull off another comeback. Tony Fernandez led the inning off by drawing a walk. Hialeah Gardens head coach Tino Burgos began bringing in pinch hitters to try to spark something late, but Maya was too tough and forced a fly ball to the right fielder, struck out another and finished the game by forcing a fly ball to the shortstop.

“I’ve never been around such tough, great young men, these seniors are trailblazers,” Hialeah Gardens head coach Burgos said. “I challenged the underclassmen to not be satisfied with just getting to regionals, and we will work hard to be back next year and try to get to our ultimate goal which is a state championship”

Coral Gables will play Hialeah next Tuesday. Hialeah sent the Cavaliers home last season, so Gables will be ready and look to turn the table this year.

“We are just going to take it one game at a time, and that is what we will preach to these guys getting them ready for next week,” Wisser said.

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