Miami Senior Takes 8A-15 Lead With Win Over Gardens

Miami Senior and Hialeah Gardens came into Thursday’s match-up as the top two teams in 8A-15, and somebody had to leave with the number one spot. The Stingarees sent Edgar Aparicio to the mound to oppose the Gladiators hard throwing lefty Max Joseph. The two pitchers battled for four innings, and in the end it was the Stingarees who came away with the 3-2 victory, and the top spot in the district.

“We started the season 0-3 and we lost games we should have won, we didn’t play that well.” said Miami Senior Manager Frank Suarez. “Now we have guys that pick each other up and we’re playing as a team, the Hialeah Gardens team we just played is a good team.”

Miami Senior is on a six game winning streak since dropping their first three games.

“It was a tough start for us, but now these guys aren’t making the same mistakes and it is showing in our wins,” said Suarez.

On Thursday night, it was Aparicio who led the way for the Stingarees. After giving up two runs in the first inning, he settled in and only gave up seven hits the rest of the way. He finished the game with nine strikeouts, three walks, and two earned runs in a complete game.

“Edgar hasn’t been pitching a lot, so I want to bring him one step at a time,” said Suarez. “He threw twenty pitches against Miami Beach to get himself ready for his start tonight, obviously he was ready.”

The Gladiators only success came in the top of the first inning when lead-off hitter Chris Clara singled, moved to second on a single off the bat of Nathan Llanes, and both runners later scored on a two RBI base hit by Jose Gaston.

It wasn’t until the Stingarees half of the third inning that they got on the scoreboard with a run of their own. A lead-off walk by Gustavo Miranda, advanced to third on a base hit by the man himself, Edgar Aparicio and then scored on a past ball to plate the first Stingarees run of game.

In the fourth, the Stingarees took the lead for good when Argenis Hernandez worked a lead-off walk and then a perfectly executed hit and run by Christian Torres advanced Hernandez to third base. After what seemed to be a routine ground ball ended up in right field, Hernandez was able to score and Torres was right behind him as the throw into third base went over the leaping glove of Jose Gaston, which allowed Torres to score the third run of the ball game for Miami.

The Gladiators had a chance to tie or take the lead in the top of the seventh. After Aparicio struck out the lead-off batter, senior Pedro Ravelo crushed a double into the left-center field gap putting himself in scoring position with less than two outs.

Another Aparicio strikeout made it a little easier to breath for the Stingarees faithful but not for long as the pesky Nathan Llanes extended the inning with an infield single, putting runners on the corners with two outs in the top of the seventh setting up a possible epic come from behind victory for the visiting Gladiators.

However, that was not the case, as Thursday night was all about Aparicio and the Stingarees. The final batter rolled over on a one hopper to the Miami third baseman for an easy 5-3 put out to end the game and give the Stingarees sole possession of first place in 8A-15.

The win moved Miami Senior to 6-3 overall and 5-0 in the district. Hialeah Gardens fell to 4-4 overall and 4-1 in the district. Next up for Miami Senior are the Pioneers of North Miami (0-4) on March 10th at Pepper Park.

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