St. Brendan Tops TERRA To Move On To Semifinal

The regional quarterfinals have not been able to stay fixed with their schedule as rainy weather has caused games to be postponed, sometimes more than once.

Fortunately, St. Brendan and TERRA are one of the few teams that have been able to squeeze in a game in between the bouts of downpour.

St. Brendan hosted the Wolves in a Class 4A regional at 11 a.m. while school was in session and even allowed some of their students, who won in a raffle, to show their Sabres’ spirit during the game.

Although there were murky clouds lurking above the playing field, the games was played without any weather delays and St. Brendan getting the early lead on TERRA and securing a 7-3 victory.

“This was the type of game we had to keep it close to the vest,” TERRA Manager Hernan Adames said. “Unfortunately, we hit the ball, but right at people, in a situation where could have caused one, two, three, four runs.”

Although the turnout was lopsided throughout most the game, the teams displayed an unusual respect for one another that is not often seen in such an important offseason game. When asked about their gamesmanship, both coaches responded that it was because they wanted to teach the kids how to be good Christians, sport players and men of honor both on and off the field.

“It starts from the top,” said St. Brendan Manager Joe Cubas, who gave a postgame speech to both teams as they took a knee. “The two coaches are very good friends, more importantly, we are good Christians, and we call ourselves MMG’s, might men of God, and that’s what I preach to those teams. We got both teams together and we prayed and we talked to them about the fact that they have nothing to hang their heads on. They had an excellent year and an excellent program, and they’re very well coached.”

St. Brendan did not allow good sportsmanship to get in the way of their aggressiveness and competitiveness in the game. The Sabres’ bats got an early jump on the Wolves, scoring their first run in the first inning from a double off the bat of the second player in the lineup, Christian Martin. The dominoes only began to fall from there, after St. Brendan’s lefty starting pitcher, David Plotkin, and the Sabres’ fielders ceased any run from crossing home until the fifth.

“We are fortunate and blessed to get into regionals,” Adames said with a smile on his face despite the loss. “We are basically on our second year as varsity. We have good athletes. Most of the starters you saw on the field today are ninth- and 10th-graders.”

The game starting tilting St. Brendan’s way after Gerson Sotolongo sailed one deep over the left field to score in Max Guzman and himself with a two-run homer. Sotolongo, St. Brendan’s center fielder, has shown vivacity on the plate, making this his second post-season home run after also hitting a homer against the Key West Conchs during district finals.

The senior has been given some offers from colleges, alongside seven of his classmates – five of which have not committed with any college just yet.

St. Brendan’s success is not an unfamiliar site for the team, but TERRA Institute has come from the unknown and has established themselves as a force to be reckoned with even though they are only a two-year varsity program. The prosperity that the Wolves showed this season did not just earn their respect, but has also brought some a good foundation for a starting ball club, especially after winning their first district title this year. The team still played hard and stammered the Sabres in the fifth, where the tables began to turn and St. Brendan allowed three runs and two errors.

“I think some of the kids took the bad at-bats to the field defensively and it cost us,” Cubas said about their fifth inning struggles. “It just caught up to them. The ball was coming right at them, and we couldn’t make simple plays, and that’s what happens in baseball. It’s part of the process of growing up and learning how to play as a baseball player.”

St. Brendan will now be playing against the LaSalle Royal Lions for the Regional semifinals. Cuba’s team has proved their worth this far and have had an impressive season record (15-11), but they will have to show up in whole in order for them to vie against the formidable Lions.

Hopefully there also will not be any weather delays for their game.

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