Monarch No-Hits Northeast, Advances With 8-3 Victory; Douglas Wins Group Five

Monarch scored six unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to come back for an 8-3 victory over Northeast in the final game of the Group Five opening round of the HSBN/Perfect Recruits Fall Classic played Saturday at Davis Field at Northeast High.

Monarch closed the opening round 2-1, while Northeast finished the tournament 1-2.

Douglas earned the automatic bid into the second round with a 3-0 record, following its 8-4 win over Coral Glades in the matinee game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Monarch also advances as a wild-card team.

“We threw a no-hitter, but we still gave up three runs and they could have beaten us,” Monarch coach Joe Franco said. “Northeast is a team that will take advantage, and we can’t give guys extra outs like that. It was nice to bounce back and overcome our mental mistakes. We have got to take advantage of other team’s mistakes.”

Leading off the bottom of the fifth, the Knights’ James Buckley tripled and then came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Andrew Rohloff that evened the score at 3. But the Hurricanes committed two errors and allowed two walks, and Monarch broke the game open from there. Following Nick Sposa’s two-run single, the Knights opened a five-run lead that held up the rest of the way.

Buckley was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs and a stolen base, and catcher Josh Mila had an RBI single, swiped four bases and also reached twice on errors.

Left-handed reliever Andrew Pierson earned the victory for Monarch after pitching a scoreless 1-2-3 fifth inning.

The Hurricanes took a 3-2 lead in the top of the second inning after Monarch starter David Webb got into a jam by walking the bases loaded. Osman Lopez then drew a walk to push Vince Duarte across the plate, Brandon Vogel followed him in on a wild pitch and Eduardo Uriarte gave Northeast the lead when he came in to score on an infield error.

Although the Hurricanes worked seven walks off the Knights’ four pitchers, they were unable to ignite any offense to add to their lead.

“This tournament has been a good experience for us; it has been competitive and fun,” Northeast coach Kevin Carney said. “We got to see guys in different situations and see what they can do. This was a good measuring stick for us, and the guys got some good work in here. The fall is all about building towards the spring season, and we’ll bounce back.”

In the afternoon contest, Douglas also rallied around a big inning to pull away against a scrappy and aggressive Jaguars team that did not waste any pitches.

Coral Glades was attacking at the plate Saturday, swinging away at many of the first pitches they saw. The approach helped the Jaguars cut into an early deficit when Frank Rodriguez led off the top of the second with a first-pitch hit that went for a ground-rule double, and then came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Alex Kline that brought Glades within 2-1.

But the Eagles pulled away for good in the fourth inning.

Evan Leyva opened with a single and scored on an RBI single from K.J. Mayo. Tommy Lammers came in on a wild pitch, and Mayo came around to score on an RBI double from Alec Dowell. Michael Greenberg then completed the four-run inning with an RBI single to score Dowell and push the lead to 7-1.

Mayo finished 2-for-2 with an RBI and three runs, and Dowell was 2-for-2 with a stolen base and two runs.

Nick Diaz brought the Jaguars closer with a two-run home run in the sixth inning, and Brian Godoy added an RBI single to score Zack Sands in the top of the seventh.

Brandon Dreichler earned the victory for the Eagles, tossing 33 of his 45 pitches for strikes while recording five strikeouts through five innings of work.

Diaz’s home run for the Jaguars was the only long ball hit during Group 5’s six games played at Davis Field.

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