St. Brendan Holds Off Gulliver Prep For 3A-16 Championship

BOX SCORE

The St. Brendan Sabres found the perfect time to get hot. This streaky club has run hot and cold all season long, but at the moment the Sabres are blazing into the regional playoffs as District 3A-16 champions on a five-game winning streak.

This team trend also perfectly characterizes their district title game on Thursday, as St. Brendan won a 9-7, tug-of-war battle with the Gulliver Prep Raiders. The Sabres came out blazing hot and exploded for a massive lead with an eight-run first inning, before cooling off as the Raiders battled back to keep the pressure on until the very end.

“I think that first inning when we scored eight runs was the most important moment of the game,” Sabres Manager Jorge Robles said. “Gulliver did a great job coming back, and this is a district championship, so you’ve got to play all seven innings.”

Although the offense was the star early on, it was the lockdown pitching at the back end that was the final difference. Sabres senior closer Lucas Argudin came on in relief for the second straight playoff game, and he answered the bell with two scoreless frames that closed out the victory.

Argudin did not allow any hits, but did scatter three base runners with a walk and two hit batsman. But when he needed his best pitches, he had them. The right-hander now has four saves on the season, two of which he earned in this district tournament.

“Our closer, Lucas Argudin, did a great job closing out the game,” Robles said. “He has been doing a great job, and he pitched the sixth and the seventh inning for us. That seventh inning was big time pitching!”

St. Brendan came out swinging hot sticks to build the massive lead in the first. Kevin Leon led off with a double, Argudin singled and Andres Martin reached on an error to load the bases for Dylan Fernandez, who responded with a two-RBI infield single. Jan Perez Fernandez kept it going with an RBI single, Alan Perez worked an RBI walk and then Diego Alvarez slugged a double that drove in two more runs. Argudin was hit by a pitch for an RBI the hard way, and then Jorge Heredia drew an RBI walk to make it an 8-0 advantage.

Kevin Leon added an RBI double that drove in Jayden Rodriguez in the second, an insurance run that proved even more valuable after the Raiders rallied for six unanswered runs to stay in the fight. Omar Falcon had a solo home run, Darwin Vargas was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI and Chase Cherne went 1-for-3 with three RBI for Gulliver Prep (15-10).

The St. Brendan defense also came up with some big moments, in a game that featured a little bit of everything.

“We got two runners out at the plate,” Robles said. “We threw a guy out at home with the game at 9-7, on a base hit to center field, and we threw him out. Another, we had a passed ball and we threw the runner out at the plate.”

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