Miami Sunset Wins First District Title In School History

It was a long time coming.

For the first time in their 34-year history, the Miami Sunset Knights can call themselves district champions.

Riding the momentum of a big second inning, Sunset came back for a 7-4 victory over Southwest in the 8A-15 District Championship played Friday night at Columbus High in Miami.

“That was our goal, to win a district championship and make history here at Sunset. They did it!” Knights Manager Armando Pelaez said. “We’re in a tough district, and we’ve always been nibbling. All of the alumni were here, and these guys are just the tightest group I have ever had. It’s great with this group of guys because they are the best.”

Sunset (18-7) is now set to host a regional playoff game for the first time, when South Dade visits in a Class 8A regional quarterfinal Wednesday, May 1st.

“Since my freshman year we’ve been so close, to getting just that one run away from getting it, and today this feels so good,” Knights senior Michael Paez said. “All these guys are special and we deserve this. We work so hard everyday in practice.”

The Knights scored six runs as it batted around the order in the bottom of the second to erase a 3-0 deficit.

Alfredo Iser singled on a slow roller up the middle, and Nicholas Machado reached on an error that put runners on the corners. Danilo De Armas also reached on an error that also allowed Iser to score.

After Jorge Lopez lined a singled over the head of the pitcher and into centerfield for an RBI single that sent home Machado, another Eagles error pushed De Armas and Lopez across the plate to give the Knights a lead it would never lose.

The Eagles had made it to the championship game by beating top seed Columbus in the semifinals, so Friday’s struggles came with much frustration for their manager, Josy Torres.

“We’ve got to make plays, and that one inning did us in,” Torres said. “We came off of a game with Columbus where we played near-perfect to beat a really good team. We knew it was going to be tough with them too; these guys are really good as well.”

Paez singled to score Herbert Iser with the winning run to keep the rally going in the second, and Alex Bravo followed with a shot deep to the right field corner of the ball park for an RBI double that sent in Paez.

Caleb Horvat had come on in relief in the second inning to replace starter Jeremy Sinski, and the senior pitched well to keep his club ahead and in control. Horvat earned the victory to improve to 2-1 on the season, after throwing 66 pitches over three and a third relief innings and holding the Eagles to just one run.

Horvat got plenty of help from his defense during his time on the mound, particularly in the top of the third inning after Southwest put two runners on when Chris Mourelle walked and Luis Aviles singled.

Luis Gutierrez did a nice job of rolling a shot slowly up the middle, but the shortstop Paez slid across the dirt to snare the ball. He then flipped the ball to second baseman Michael Centino, who then fired from second to the first baseman Machado, who did an excellent job of stretching himself out long and low to reach out and receive the ball just ahead of the runner to complete a very beautiful 6-4-3 double play.

After also going 2-for-4 at the plate, Paez circled the wagon to come onto the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning and earn the save by closing out the game.

“I told them to put me in from the beginning, and I wanted to finish it,” said Paez. “In the bullpen I was feeling good, so I took it on the mound and just threw strikes.”

For the Eagles, their starter was the absolute epitome of what it means to throw strikes. Senior lefty Nelson Fernandez was a workhorse for the club, going the distance while only allowing one earned run. What was most impressive about Fernandez’s performance was that 72 of his 99 pitches went for strikes.

“We had to make some adjustments, because those guys played their hearts out,” Pelaez admitted. “That lefty had us off-balance, so we started going the opposite way. We caught some breaks, but that’s high school baseball. If you put it in play anything can happen.”

Even despite the costly miscues in the second, Fernandez remained unshaken as he continued to attack the Knights lineup on his way to recording five strikeouts. After being used primarily in relief all season in making just his second start of the year, he exceeded expectations of giving the team four innings by giving them all seven instead.

“He is very composed and he’s pretty polished,” Torres said of his starter. “He’s a very mature and disciplined kid, and we felt good with him coming in. We knew we had a guy who gave us a chance to win it, and he did his part. He’s mostly been in relief for us, but we have confidence in him. He’s come into some tough situations and he’s answered in the past.”

The Eagles wasted little time in backing Fernandez, as Pena connected deep for a sacrifice flyout that allowed Danny Casals to score in the first before adding two more runs in the second.

Gutierrez roped a hanging curveball that veered into the deep left field corner to allow him to reach second base for a double, and Gaby Casals followed by connecting on a high fastball that bounced off the right field wall for a double that pushed Gutierrez within ninety feet of the plate after he held up on the bases to make sure the ball was not caught on the play.

Catcher Rey Pastrana then sliced an RBI single to complete Gutierrez’s trip around the bases, and later in the inning Alexis Cuevas scored on an error after serving as the courtesy runner for Pastrana.

Gaby Casals finished 2-for-3, the only Eagles batter with multiple hits on the day.

The Eagles added a run to chip away at the deficit in the fourth, as Danny Casals doubled on a shot deep off the right field wall and then came in when Carlos Pena crushed an offering to left field for an RBI double that made it 6-4.

But Southwest was unable to muster any further rallies, as Pena was the last Eagles player to make it as far as second base.

Southwest (14-10) will travel to play Killian on Wednesday night on the other side of this portion of the Class 8A regional bracket.

“Now it’s all about putting this one behind us, going back to work and getting ready for Wednesday,” Torres said. “We’ve just got to try to duplicate that same intensity that we had Wednesday night when we beat Columbus. Today we just shot ourselves in the foot, and obviously we can’t do that against a good Killian team on the road and have a chance to win.”

Meanwhile, Sunset has the luxury of playing at home for their next contest.

“We’ve got so much momentum right now, and we feel like we can hit anybody,” said Paez. “We’ve hit everybody’s ace, and our hitting is going to be there, especially at our house.”

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