Killian Sophomore Granda Stifles Pace Bats

Starting a sophomore against a team that went to the state final four last season, and is loaded with offensive firepower is not the ideal situation to get to a tournament championship game. That, however, was exactly what Killian Manager Angel Herrera did on Wednesday afternoon.

The Cougars were facing Monsignor Pace, who just a week earlier had pounded the baseball during two preseason games. Ryan Granda made sure that history did not repeat itself this week, stifling the Pace bats over 3.2 innings in a 5-2 Killian win. The sophomore gave up only one hit, and remained poised into the fourth inning.

“Ryan is one of those sophomores we talked about at the beginning of the year that was going to get thrown into the fire, and today he surely didn’t disappoint,” said Herrera. “He’s ahead of the curve right now. Contributing right out of the gate for us in his first varsity start is impressive. The outing he had for us today was huge.”

For three innings, Alex Perez matched Granda. Withe the game scoreless in the fourth, the Cougars put up four runs behind two clutch doubles by Mike Perez and William Ortiz. Danny Cumba followed Ortiz’ two-run double with an RBI base hit of his own in the inning.

“Alex Perez is an outstanding pitcher,” said Herrera. “One of the top pitchers in the county. So for those two guys to come up with big doubles, it was big for us. There’s nothing better as a coach than seeing things you practice translate to the field, and we have worked hard on hitting approaches. This group of kids is very coachable, and today they get all the credit for performing at a high level.”

Killian has faced two of the better teams in South Florida in the Falcons Challenge this week. After defeating Douglas 10-3 on Tuesday, the Cougars clinched their spot in the championship game against the host Falcons with the win over Pace.

“It’s a great start to our season,” said Granda. “We have confidence that we can win games, and this was a big game for us today.”

When asked what it would take to win the tournament Friday night, Granda did not mince his words.

“We need to keep executing and stay focused. These were two good games for us, but we haven’t won anything yet.”

Killian received strong relief work Tuesday from Jonathan Oliverod and Perez. Oliverod went three innings and struck out three. In the seventh, Pace mounted a threat and even put the tying run at the plate, but it was Perez who came in and finished the game off with a strikeout.

For Pace, it was a rough start to their season of high expectations, but that is something that seems to happen every year in this event.

“This Flanagan tournament, for some reason, we just don’t play well here. It’s been years we’ve been coming to this tournament, and we can’t seem to put it together here,” said Pace Manager Tom Duffin. “Hopefully this will follow suit with other years, where we play poorly here, and then roll off 13 in a row. But really, Killian played a good game today and we just didn’t execute. Too many mistakes. It’s a long season and this is just the start, so hopefully we’ll get things corrected.

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