Sunset Beats Key West To Advance To State Tournament
The Knights celebrate after earning a tough, 2-1 victory over the Key West Conchs in the regional championship.
It was a dream come true for the Miami Sunset Knights on Tuesday night, as they won to advance to the FHSAA Class 4A State Final Four.
Jonathan Diamond delivered the go-ahead base hit in the sixth inning, and the pitching staff closed out a dominant performance to earn a 2-1 road victory over the Key West Conchs in the Region 4A-4 Championship at Rex Weech Field. The Knights (17-8) move on to the state tournament, taking on the North Marion Colts at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on Friday night.
“It feels great,” said senior Jonathan Diamond. “We’ve worked hard with the goal to put Sunset on the map. We’ve faced a lot of adversity, but we’ve held the vision and trusted the process.”
The Colts (25-5) won 5-4 over the Bishop Moore Hornets to claim the Region 4A-2 Championship. North Marion has won its last six games.
Sunset has also been hot down the stretch, winning six of its last seven contests. The Knights continued to play their best baseball even despite facing a tough opponent with a strong home-field advantage.
“It felt like the moment we spent all year preparing for,” Sunset Manager Julio Mendoza said. “It was a close game, a hostile environment on the road, and every decision mattered. We played a heck of a game and beat a really tough team on the road. Hats off to Ralph Henriquez; those boys can play.”
After being held in check offensively through the first five frames, the Knights finally broke through with both of their runs in the top of the sixth inning. Nicholas Roca lined a single to center to lead off the inning, and he advanced to second on a ground out off the bat of Andres Gonzalez. Miguel Gonzalez then evened the score with an RBI double to left field that brought Jonathan Diamond to the plate.
The Conchs (22-6) continued the same formula that had led to so much success all season, relying on strong starting pitching and complimenting it with timely, clutch hits. Starter Andris Barroso carried a scoreless game into the sixth, as he scattered six hits and two walks over five-and-two-third innings with five strikeouts.
Mike Greenberg singled with two outs in the fifth, advanced on a base hit from Wyatt Kuhn and then scored on an error to give Key West a 1-0 lead.
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