Conchs Stay Perfect With District Win Over St. Brendan

As soon as Darren Miller saw Steven Wells lead off the game with a single, he knew what he had to do.

The Key West juniors have a best friend’s agreement that if Wells gets on ahead of him, Miler must then drive him home.

So with the first pitch he saw, Miller did just that as he crushed a high fastball over the left-field fence for a two-run home run.

The right-hander then went on to throw a complete-game gem to lead his Conchs to a 3-1 victory over District 4A-16 rival St. Brendan in a contest played at Carlos Albert Costa Field in Miami on Wednesday afternoon.

“He threw me one middle-in and I just swung and it felt like I got the bat head on it and that I got it pretty good,” Miller said of his home run. “I was seeing the ball well today.”

Miller went 2-for-3 on the day and also reached on a walk to pace the Conchs (3-0, 2-0).

But his real damage came from on the mound.

Miller threw 61 of his 93 pitches for strikes, cruising through seven innings of work while limiting the Sabres (0-4, 0-1) to five hits, a pair of walks and a hit batter. Relying primarily on a nasty curveball, Miller recorded seven strikeouts.

“His curveball was really good today, so we didn’t call all of his pitches because I didn’t want to over-think it,” Key West Manager Miguel Mendez said. “You’re in good shape when you have your best player on the mound and he does his job, and he hits a two-run homer! He did pretty much everything.”

Miller admitted he had been looking forward to this game, just as most of his young teammates also were. The Conchs had only their third losing season in school history last year while meanwhile the Sabres won the district title. So the team was eager to come out attacking on Wednesday.

“I felt confident that my defense would make some plays, and it worked out pretty good,” Miller said. “If I’m out there and I know my defense is playing good then I can throw strikes. I don’t really to have to set-up guys. It allows me to be pretty efficient on the mound.”

Defense was the key for both teams in the pitcher’s duel, as there were no errors committed by either ballclub in the game.

In the top of the sixth inning it was a couple of strong defensive plays that helped stave off a Conchs rally and keep St. Brendan alive.

With Hugo Valdes on second base and no outs, third baseman Max Guzman dove out and snared a sharp liner off the bat of Chris Garcia, which held Valdes at second and allowed Guzman to make the putout throw to first base.

The Sabres then opted to bring in David Hernandez to relieve starter Jared Gomez, and Hernandez started off by hitting Marcus Brisson to put runners on first and second.

Gaby Soto then came up with the Sabres second big defensive play of the frame when he snagged a hard line-drive from Gus Galo and then quickly flipped the ball to Chiqui Carrera to double-off Valdes at second base.

Although St. Brendan was able to put runners on in both of the final two innings, it was just unable to get that big hit it needed to rally back.

The team has lost its four games this season by a combined seven runs.

Yet even though Wednesday’s game was a district contest, Sabres Manager Joe Cubas elected to sit the majority of his starters.

“I haven’t seen the fire in these guys. There has been no passion for playing the game for the right reasons,” Cubas said. “I saw more of it today because these guys want to play. They played their hearts out today and they played very well. Unfortunately they got on top with that home run and we just couldn’t catch them. My hats off to Key West. They played a heck of a game.”

Pinch-hitter Henry Knez provided the lone blemish on the day for Miller in the bottom of the fifth inning when he got a hold of a hanging curve ball and muscled it over the fence for a solo home run.

Suddenly the Sabres were on the scoreboard, and they had new life.

“Henry’s got a lot of power. He came in and got a good curve ball and he hit it out,” Cubas said. “Unfortunately, we did not have anybody on base so we could not capitalize on it.”

But even with the momentum swinging in the Sabres favor, Mendez admitted there was never any thought of Key West taking the ball from Miller and turning it over to the bullpen.

“We didn’t even have anybody warming up,” Mendez joked. “Darren would have killed me if I had taken him out of the game.”

Jared Gomez took the tough loss on the mound, despite the quality start. The right-hander needed just 62 pitches to work into the sixth inning, scattering five hits and a walk while picking up a pair of strikeouts.

Key West takes an early lead atop the District 4A-16 standings, which was one of the team’s goals coming into the season.

“Today was a good test for us,” Mendez said. “We wanted to get off to a good start this year and it was big for us to come here and set the tone for the district. We wanted to send the message that we’re going to be tough to beat this year.”

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