South Dade Pulls Away Late To Move Past Palmetto

8A-16 Playoff Semifinal Gallery

Erik Manoah has meant the world to his South Dade team this season. On Tuesday afternoon the team’s big-game player delivered for his guys again, pitching a complete game and also getting some big hits at the plate.

Behind the example of their star player, the Buccaneers stayed the course to pull away late for a big 9-2 victory over Palmetto in an 8A-16 district semifinal played at Robbie Smith Field at Southridge High.

The win moves the Bucs (18-5) into the championship game on Thursday night, where they will face rival Killian after the Cougars also won and advanced in the other semifinal played Tuesday night. Both teams also qualified for the regional playoffs, which begin next week.

Although the score may not reflect it, the contest was much closer and tighter most of the way through. Palmetto had come into the game with a wave of momentum after upsetting three-seed and district host Southridge on Monday, and the Panthers (11-13) took the field looking to score another upset win and stamp their own ticket to the playoffs.

Erik Manoah simply wasn’t going to let that happen. The right-hander was a bulldog on the mound, needing just 96 pitches to go the full seven innings while scattering five hits and two walks, while striking out six. He was also a force at the plate, going 2-for-3 and reaching base all four trips to the plate by also drawing a walk and reaching on an error.

“He’s done it all,” South Dade Manager Fred Burnside said of his star player. “On the mound the problem is he tries to do too much sometimes. At the plate the kid has had a hell of a year; he’s hit seven home runs and he hits in the three-hole, and he got us going again today and he’s done that many times. On the mound he sometimes gets where he thinks he’s got to strike everybody out and he gets where he overthrows. But we beat a good club today. Palmetto is a good club and they showed it last night.”

The Panthers showed it early on in Tuesday’s contest as well, jumping out to a 1-0 lead with their first at bats. Keaton Zargham bounced the ball past first base just inside the chalk to lead things off with a double, and two batters later Kevin Barbato rolled an RBI single up the middle to push Zargham around third and across the plate. Only 11 pitches into the game Palmetto had a lead on South Dade’s ace, and the team was again thinking upset.

“It’s like I told them before yesterday’s game, nobody expects you to beat Southridge, and we did. I told them the same thing today, that nobody expects you to beat South Dade and you just have to come out and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” said Panthers Manager Danny Smith.

Erik Manoah showcased another tool in his arsenal to respond with a nice pickoff move to erase Barbato and clear the bases. He followed that with a swinging strikeout to end the frame, and then went to work with his bat to get the team back into it. After the first two batters were retired, Erik jumped on the first pitch he saw to drive it into left field for a double that got his teammates on their feet in excitement.

“We knew coming into this game that Palmetto just got a big momentum taking down number three seed Southridge. We knew coming into this game that they were hungry and they had nothing to lose, and we just came out here and played our type of baseball,” Erik said. “We put the runs on the board and we came out with the ‘W’. I’m proud of my team and I just went out there and did my job and we just played as a ball club. I’m excited for down the stretch.”

Erik gave way to courtesy runner Jhan Barrios, who came in to score after Gabriel Cruz and Sergio Lopez were both hit by pitches to load the bases and Danny Vaughan reached on an error that scored two runners. It was the first of many costly errors for the Panthers.

“Our guys last night played their hearts out, emotionally and physically, and today when they came here they were dragging and you could see it,” Smith said. “Our starting pitcher did not do a good job, and he set the tone for us where we had to catch up. Catching up in high school baseball against probably one of the best pitchers in Dade County is almost impossible. I told you before the game, that’s not a great team. They are a well-coached, disciplined and smart team. They are not the greatest, but they are so well-disciplined and they are so mature, and they are well-coached. It’s tough to beat a team like that when you’re exhausted from the night before.”

Although both sides put runners on base in nearly every frame, the score remained the same into the bottom of the fifth. With such high stakes on the line, both teams had a difficult time adjusting and shaking off some tenseness that was evident on both sides for the better part of the game.

“Those elimination games are always interesting, and everybody is a little tensed up and anything can happen early on,” said Burnside. “I’ve seen it many times, but our kids weathered it, weathered the rocky start and I’m real proud of them. They’ve worked really hard to get to this point and they deserve to still be playing. It was not until the bottom of the fifth where we started to loosen up a bit. Why, I don’t know. Part of it is human nature. You try to keep them loose, but in these district tournaments you see some huge upsets and that’s how it happens. During the year it is a different climate and they realize the importance of it and tighten up.”

In the bottom of the fifth the Bucs finally shook off any remaining jitters to blow the game wide open. They batted around the order and piled six runs on the scoreboard to pull ahead 8-1 and put the game nearly out of reach. It was Erik getting things started again when he drew a two-out walk, and again gave way to Barrios, who went on to tally the deciding run. South Dade loaded the bases twice during the frame, as walks and errors piled up against Palmetto to keep the inning going. Batting in the bottom spot in the lineup, first baseman Alek Manoah delivered the final big dagger when he laced a shot over the third baseman and deep into the left field corner to score three runners on the RBI double.

Joshua Cohen did his part to try and spark a late Panthers rally in the top of the seventh, as the senior catcher drove a leadoff double off the center field fence. Joel Thayer came on to run the bases for Cohen, and scored on an RBI single from Zargham. Zargham had a big day, going 4-for-4 to account for nearly all of the Palmetto offensive production.

While the result was less than what they had hoped for, Coach Smith was pleased with what his young club was able to accomplish this season. With much of the roster set to come back, the guys will do so having gained some valuable playoff experience this week.

“We grew and we’re growing,” said Smith. “We’re a very young squad and I expect big things from our squad next year. We just can’t finish sixth and expect to come here and make it to the championship game. That’s a long road. But am I proud of them? Absolutely I am proud of them. They showed a lot of heart in the dugout, even though we were losing. We’ve got some things to fix and we’ll get it done.”

South Dade will now face Killian for the third time this season, after the two clubs split their regular-season series. Now the rubber match will be for the district title. Although there will be far less pressure on either squad now that they know their season has been extended and they will live to play on next week, it does little to lesson a rivalry rematch that has a district title at stake.

“The championship game, I wouldn’t say is the biggest game for us,” Erik admited. “We haven’t come out on top against Killian for the district title. So we’re pretty excited that we get to be in it again as we were last year, and hopefully if we keep playing our game of baseball we can come out with the title this year.”

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