Miami Springs Holds Off TERRA For Third Win In A Row

After his team held on to defeat the TERRA institute, Miami Springs Manager Willie Vazquez had a simple explanation of why his team has been playing so well as of late.

“They’re listening now,” he said after his team won 5-3 in Miami Springs for their third consecutive win.

The Golden Hawks (5-4, 4-1 District 8A-14) are on a roll after starting their season 0-3.

After a scoreless first, Miami Springs got the ball rolling in the second inning. With one out, Seniors Madison Kreitner and Gabriel Gali hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. After a wild pitch allowed both runners to advance a base, designated hitter Scottie Lopez hit a fly ball to left that was misplayed by the left fielder, allowing Kreitner to score the first run of the game. Springs scored again when senior Pedro Riveria hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring Gali home from third. The Wolves ended the inning when junior catcher Rueben Pino threw out a runner trying to steal second base.

TERRA (5-3, 2-0 District 4A-15) responded in the top of the third. Freshman Andres Perez led the inning off with single. Sophomore Nick Lopez laid down a well-executed sacrifice bunt down the third-base line to move Perez over to second. Leadoff hitter Yasser Santana smacked an RBI double to left-center for the Wolves’ first run. Sophomore Alexis Valladares caught Miami Springs defense off guard when he laid down a bunt for a base hit to put runners on the corners. The Wolves tied the score after Pino hit a fly ball to right field that was caught for an out, but the throw to home plate sailed high allowing Santana to score from third. After two consecutive walks, pitcher Alex Iruela settled down to force a groundout to shortstop for the third out.

The Wolves had a chance to take the lead in the fourth when Lopez drew a two-out walk to keep the inning alive. Lopez used his speed to steal second and third base to set the table for Santana, but the Golden Hawks killed the drive when Santana hit a one-hopper back to the pitcher for the third out.

Springs tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth with a big hit from Kreitner. After catcher Emmanuel Alfaro was hit by a pitch, Kreitner smacked a pitch deep into the left center-field gap, allowing Alfaro to score from first before Kreitner hustled around to third base and beat an errant throw that went out of play, forcing the umpire to send Kreitner home for the ground-rule, inside-the-park home run.

“I was just trying to get some momentum going and that inning was the key inning,” Kreitner said. “I was basically looking for fastball high and in, and that’s what I got.”

The Wolves were able to stop Springs’ momentum in the fourth when relief pitcher Frank Bartow forced a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.

The Golden Hawks added one more run in the top of the fifth. With one out and the bases loaded after two singles and an intentional walk, Kreitner delivered again by hitting a grounder to second and beating out the shortstop’s throw to first to prevent to double play, allowing Ronald Acosta to score. Kreitner finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored for Miami Springs.

“He’s had a hit in the last four games, so he’s really been doing well for us lately,” Vasquez said.

In the bottom of the sixth TERRA used a nifty trick play on defense to hold the Golden Hawks at bay. With a runner on second base, the Wolves’ Bartow pulled a fast one when he faked a wild pick off throw to second, causing the runner to take off for third not realizing that the pitcher still had the ball, waiting to tag him on the basepath for an out. The Wolves forced two more ground outs to end the inning.

TERRA had one more chance to tie it up or take the lead at the top of the seventh. With two outs and a runner on third, junior Alex Saavedra hit an RBI single to put the score at 5-3. However, Springs pitcher Nayit Napoles struck out the next batter to end the game.

Miami Springs has won five out of its last six games and scored exactly five runs in each of its last three wins after starting the season 0-3.

“Losing those first three wasn’t fun,” Vazquez said. “Now we’re starting to play much better.”

The Wolves have dropped their third straight game after starting at 5-0.

“Defense was good today, pitching was in the strike zone we made a couple mistakes against good hitters, the guy hit a triple and throw got thrown away and that was the difference in a 5-3 ballgame,” Wolves Manager Hernan Adames said.

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