Centennial shocks Vero Beach for 10-7A baseball title, Jensen, John Carroll win titles

Baseball

District 10-7A

(2) Centennial 7, (1) Vero Beach 6

VERO BEACH — On paper, the Centennial baseball team had absolutely nothing to lose entering Thursday's District 10-7A championship game needing a win to make the state playoffs.

Losing 10-0 in no-hit fashion on March 21 to Vero Beach at and having to play that same opponent on their field where they hadn't lost all season, the Eagles picked the right time to do something special.

Senior Isaiah Ramos turned a double play in the bottom of the seventh inning to complete a 7-6 victory for Centennial that featured many heroes on a night in which they needed every Eagle to make magic happen.

Another senior, Brian O'Shea, was called upon to do a job that he had not done much of during the regular season, which was get Centennial across the finish line on the mound.

Entering in the fifth inning with two men on and nobody out with the Eagles (12-13) up 6-5, the starting center fielder headed to the mound after throwing a grand total of one inning in two appearances all season.

Aided by a caught stealing by Sebastien Germano behind the plate, O'Shea kept the lead for Centennial in the fifth and drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth to tack on another Eagle run.

Vero Beach got an RBI single from Chase Wilson to make it 7-6 but O'Shea again kept the lead for the Eagles and in the seventh got the job done to bring Centennial their first district title since 2013.

"He's been throwing great bullpens lately so I knew I had him in my back pocket if I needed him," Centennial head coach Vic Garcia said. "He's a great center fielder so I hated bringing him in losing his defense out there but I knew my closer Christian Alonso, he was a little wild, he's young. I figured I had to make the change (in the fifth) and bring Brian in to throw strikes and give us a chance. Thank God, it worked out."

The finish was tight as the game was throughout the night as Vero Beach (19-2) needed until the third inning to break the ice scoring three runs with an RBI single from Finley Holmes, an RBI double from Ray Rose and an RBI single from Wilson.

Centennial's Giovanni Lopez brought his team right back in the game with a two-run home run to left-center field off Vero Beach starter Brock Thomas in the fourth.

Vero's Jace Romans restored the three-run lead for his team in the bottom of the inning with a two-run single off Eagle starter Zach Staples to make it 5-2.

In the fifth, Centennial plated four runs with a go-ahead two-run double down the right field line from senior Charlie Alonso putting the Eagles on top for the first time in the game 6-5.

O'Shea's relief performance of three innings and four strikeouts was matched by a strong relief outing from Holmes for Vero as he struck out four in 1⅔ innings to give his team a chance in the late innings.

Centennial and Vero Beach will both await their postseason opponents for regional quarterfinals next week as the FHSAA releases brackets Friday at 1 p.m.

For Garcia, the fact that his kids had the chance to compete for a state playoff spot needing to walk-off Fort Pierce Central in Tuesday's semifinal thanks to a walk-off single from Germano, his team will go into their postseason playing with all the confidence in the world.

"At the end of the day, you just want that opportunity to play for it," Garcia said. "That's a great team we played, they weren't 19-1 for nothing. We knew it was going to be a battle but we felt good about our chances because I'd say the last three weeks, we have started to come together and play better. We knew when our staff came in two years ago, we were capable of doing something like this and that was our plan from day one and my hats off to our kids."

District 13-4A

(1) Jensen Beach 11, (2) American Heritage 0 (6 innings): Needing just two batters to take an early lead, Jensen Beach gave ace Chris Knier plenty of run support to bring home another district championship.

Knier struck out eight in six shutout innings and did damage at the plate with a 3-for-5 night with two RBI to lead the Falcons (20-6) to the District 13-4A title on the road.

Dylan Fatovich led the game off with a double and was brought home by Louisville signee Kevin Smith's RBI single and Knier brought in Smith with an RBI single in the first inning.

Knier was in cruise control on the mound, allowing just two hits and over his last five starts hasn't allowed a run and has struck out 39 batters in 27⅔ innings.

Smith went 2-for-4 with a double and four RBI, Jake Breen went 2-for-4 a double with two RBI and Kaiden Jones went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI for Jensen Beach, who has won 19 of their last 20 games.

District 13-2A

(1) John Carroll Catholic 6, (2) Master's Academy 1: Tracen Cameron struck out 10 in six innings and Grady Messner had a two-run double in the second inning and drove in three runs for the game to lead John Carroll Catholic to the 13-2A title at Lawnwood Stadium.

Gian Brown had an RBI single in the fourth inning to draw the Patriots (13-13) within a run but the Rams answered with a pair of runs in the fourth of their own and added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Anthony Ferraro went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI for John Carroll, who had Camrin Weeks close the game out on the mound with a scoreless inning.

Mihir Manerikar went 2-for-3 at the plate and allowed two earned runs in four innings on the mound for Master's Academy.

The Rams (17-10) will await their regional quarterfinal opponent and will be assured to host next Tuesday with their region ranking.

Softball

District 14-5A

(3) Sebring 3, (1) South Fork 2: Tera Lynn Price stranded the game-tying runner in scoring position recording the final two outs in relief to send the Blue Streaks (12-8) past top-seeded South Fork for the District 14-5A championship in Stuart.

Sebring scored single runs in the second, third and fifth innings and got a 2-for-3 night from Sonja Patterson, who hit a solo home run and added a double.

Marissa Wilkinson had a double and a triple and drove in a pair of runs and struck out five in 6⅓ innings for the Blue Streaks.

Katie Kidwell struck out seven in a complete-game loss for the Bulldogs (14-5-1), who will wait to see where they land in the state brackets as the FHSAA releases regional quarterfinal pairings at noon Friday.

District 13-5A

(1) Bayside 11, (2) Sebastian River 1 (5 innings): Brooke Mahaney went 2-for-3 with a home run and drove in three runs at the plate and struck out eight in the circle to send the Bears (15-6) to the District 13-5A title.

Bayside used a five-run second inning for plenty of cushion to give Mahaney on the mound, who allowed a lone unearned run in her complete game effort.

Jordyn Milo went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, Karlee Guerry had two hits and two RBIs and Leah Acker went 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI for the Bears, who bashed out 14 hits as a team.

Zoey Vincent had a hit and an RBI in the loss for the Sharks (15-5).

District 13-2A

(1) Oxbridge Academy 16, (2) John Carroll Catholic 6 (6 innings): After a five-run explosion in the first inning, John Carroll Catholic couldn't hang on as top-seed Oxbridge Academy's offense bashed out 19 hits to earn the District 13-2A title.

Sophia Loreto and Kendra Chapa each had a two-run single and Cam Haughton had an RBI single that put the Rams (18-7) ahead in the first inning.

The ThunderWolves (17-5) used a five-run inning of their own in the third and took the lead in the fourth on an RBI double from Shayna Barker.

John Carroll tied the game in the fifth on a missed catch on a steal attempt of second base but Oxbridge Academy regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out RBI single from Madison Jennings.

Jennings came up huge defensively for the ThunderWolves in the sixth inning as she cut down a runner at the plate from shortstop with one out that helped the Oxbridge Academy keep their lead.

Oxbridge starting pitcher Chandler Barry, who had settled in after the first inning, blasted a home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth to start the beginning of the end for the ThunderWolves.

Barker had an RBI single, Kaiya Glucksman had a two-run double, Alex Muller and Jennings each had RBI singles and Barker came around to bat again and had a two-run double that wrapped up the district title for Oxbridge Academy, who reached a state semifinal last season.

Haughton had two hits for John Carroll, which almost assuredly will earn an at-large berth to the state tournament.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Centennial, Jensen Beach, John Carroll baseball win district titles