Southridge Holds Off Coral Reef In 5-2 Win

Southridge senior left-hander Ralph Fernandez took the mound and turned in a gritty, gutsy effort that was exactly what manager Ed Doskow needed. Pitching a complete game three-hitter and striking out six, Fernandez worked in and out of trouble to keep his team in the thick of the playoff race with a 5-2 victory over the Coral Reef Barracudas.

Fernandez, who walked five and also had to work around three errors, threw 120 pitches in his seven innings of work but didn’t falter or give in to exhaustion. Even with the two run seventh inning, Fernandez kept cool and made sure to end the game with a victory. Thanks in part to Fernandez’s fantastic outing on the mound, the Spartans were able to move their record to 12-10.

Fernandez was given a major boost on offense by the trio of Brandon Abreu, Anthony Vargas, and Nick Deegan who combined for seven hits and four RBI in support of the senior starter. Deegan also had two doubles — the only two extra base hits for either team on Wednesday night — the first of which started the scoring off for the Spartans and gave them a lead they’d never give up.

Opposing Fernandez was John Stathopulos, who pitched a complete game of his own and threw 60% of his 100 percent for strikes while punching out six. Coral Reef made a comeback attempt in the seventh inning when Joey Yngber had an RBI single to score Pedro Sanchez and Tyler Everett, but Fernandez recorded the final out via a strikeout to finish things off.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!