KEY WEST BASEBALL IN REGION

Coral Shores and Marathon to face off in district semifinals

ey West completed regular season play with a pair of games against the 7A Stingarees of Miami. The Conchs won both games, bringing their record to 18-5 and securing the top seed and a bye heading into the district playoff brackets. The 4A Conchs are ranked first in region 4 and third in the state in 4A action. The team cleared its final hurdles to seal the ranking by defeating the Stingarees 12-1 on Apr. 28, then 11-1 the following night.

In game one, six Conchs combined for 13 total hits. Anthony Lariz led the hitting, going 3-4 on the night. Jack Haggard, Matt Greenberg, Anden Rady and Noah Burnham each had two hits and Sam Holland and Wyatt Kuhn added one each. Andris Barroso got the win on the mound, striking out eight batters over four innings. Marlin Takovich added one inning of relief to end the game. On Saturday night, the Stingarees endured a second night of heavy hitting. Kuhn and Greenberg had a pair of hits each while Caden Pichardo, Gabe Williams, Rady, Haggard and Holland each had one hit, with Holland’s being a home run. Three Conchs combined for the no-hit win on the mound. Felix Ong was credited with the win, pitching two innings of the abbreviated mercy-rule victory. Jacob Burnham pitched two innings and Hunter White made his varsity debut with an inning of relief. Key West will now turn its attention toward the playoffs and an elusive 12th state championship.

KCoral Shores finished their regular season play with a win against ABF Academy Homestead on April 25. The 6-13 Hurricanes are ranked third in their district and faced a familiar opponent in Marathon for their first playoff game on May 2. In a rematch of the two teams’ March contest that saw Coral Shores emerge victorious, 14-2, the Hurricanes blanked the Fins, 10-0. Up next for the Hurricanes was a secondround clash with Keys Gate on May 3, though the results of the game were not available as of press time.

Marathon earned a chance at a conference championship last week by defeating Ransom Everglades 6-3 on April 25. Dylan Ziels extended his nationally-ranked strikeout stats, fanning 16 batters in the big win. Offensively, Ryan Yablon hammered three of the Fins’ six hits. Dylan Globe, Gabe Leal and Jack Chapman had the other three. The win sent Marathon to Miami Country Day School on April 28 to take on Palmer Trinity for the conference final game. Yablon started on the mound for Marathon, lasting 3-2/3 innings while Gavin Leal closed it out. Bryan Broche had a pair of hits and Yablon and both Leals had one each, but it would not be enough to defeat Palmer. Marathon lost the game 6-0, placing all their hopes for postseason glory in their district brackets. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be this year as the Fins suffered the loss to Coral Shores to end their season.

By: Tracy and Sean McDonald