Coconut Creek Cruises Past Dillard

The Coconut Creek Cougars met the Panthers of Dillard High on Monday afternoon. Hosting the game at the “Home of the Cougars”, Coconut Creek took control early and they never let up.  Seizing an 11-0 lead after the bottom of the first inning, the Cougars cruised to a 21-4 victory.

Coconut Creek improved to 2-4 overall and 2-3 in District 5A-16 by using patience at the plate in the first inning, as the Cougars collected five walks. There were also two hit batsman which enabled the Cougars to keep plenty of men on the base paths. Timely hits by right fielder Jared Miller, second baseman Raymond Santiago, and pitcher Dalton Kaczmarik pushed those runners across the plate. The barrage continued as they scored six runs in the second and added three more in the third.

“Wins for us now are precious,” stated Manager Pete Perez. “We are headed in the right direction.”

The Cougars received some solid starting pitching from the junior Kaczmarik, who struck out six of the nine batters he faced. His only blemish was a soft hit grounder that died between home plate and the pitchers mound. Dillard’s speedy Quendon Spellman was able to leg it out to break up Kaczmarik’s perfect outing.

Kaczmarik used his three innings wisely, as he worked with catcher Antonio Martinez.

“Antonio is great,” Kaczmarik said. “He is the best catcher I have ever had. He helps me with my pitches and really keeps me in the game. I was trying to work on my change-up. I had my cutter, slider and fastball working.”

Although the game was out of hand, The Panthers ( 0-5, 0-4) did not give up. The Panthers scored their four runs after being down 20-0.

“We are very young,” Panthers Assistant Coach Fitzroy Williams said. “We have a couple of seniors and a couple of juniors and the rest of the team are sophomores and freshmen. We will make some mistakes, but we will use every game to learn and move forward.”

Cougars leadoff hitter Winston Nunez scored four runs. Raymond Santiago had two hits and three RBIs and the catcher Martinez scored three times and had an RBI. The other Cougars hitting stars included Kaczmarik ,with three hits and three RBIs; Jared Miller, with a clutch two-run single in the first; and Wrosney Davilmar, with a solid shot to left field that brought two runs home in the second inning.

“We are solid up the middle with Martinez, Nunez and Santiago,” Perez said. “Those guys, plus Dalton and Adrian Williams in center, make us solid.”

The Cougars were solid on Monday afternoon and Perez hopes they will keep moving in the winning direction.

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