EMERSON, Ga. – After navigating through a field of 11 teams in a single elimination bracket, a pair of Florida teams, the South Dade Buccaneers and the Merritt Island Mustangs, faced off in the Championship game of the 2016 Rawlings Select Classic #2. After a long, offensive-oriented game, South Dade earned the win with an impressive score of 11-4 and securing Head Coach Fred Burnside’s 500th career victory.
The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead after their pair of Florida commits, Brady McConnell and Mason Denaburg, reached base with no outs. Chase Victor got hit by a pitch with two outs to load the bases and the first run of the game scored on a balk by the pitcher.
South Dade did not wait long to come back, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Gabriel Cruz delivered a loud RBI double down the right field line and then scored on a groundout to give the Bucs the lead. They weren’t done there as Ricardo Sobalvarro delivered a two-out double and came around to score on a Jorge Torres RBI single.
In the bottom of the second, South Dade followed up with two more runs off the bat off William Escala, who placed a single through the left side of the infield to make the score 5-1. He later came around to score on an error by the Mustangs’ starter who made an errant throw on a pickoff attempt.
First basemen Alek Manoah came up with a pair of runners on in the bottom of the second and delivered a towering three-run home run that landed well beyond the fence and on the soccer fields behind the scoreboard. That blast gave the Buccaneers a 9-1 lead heading into the third.
The Mustangs scratched across a run in the top of the third to cut the deficit to seven runs on an RBI groundout from Connor Allen. They did the same thing in the fourth inning as Ricardo Diaz raced home from third on a wild pitch to make the score 9-3.
South Dade set out to get back one of those runs with an RBI double from Sobalvarro, his second of the game, to stretch the lead back to 10-3 after four full innings.
Charleston Southern commit Dan Vaughan showed a really strong, accurate arm from third base. He had good range and instincts and helped his starter, Gio Fernandez, escape a bases loaded, one out jam and turned a 5-3 double play in the top of fifth.
Jhan Barrios delivered a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 11-3, but before more damage could be done, the Mustangs defense turned a clutch 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.
The sixth inning went quietly and Gio Borges came on in relief of Gio Fernandez to close out the win. He allowed one run, but closed out the game as the players stormed the field in celebration.
Fernandez earned the win tossing six innings allowing only three runs (two earned) on five hits, and he struck out one batter. He threw 57 percent of his pitches for strikes and did well to limit any damage.
The team as a whole posted an absurd .342/.457/.523 slash line with 37 runs scored in the tournament. On the mound, they posted a 2.75 ERA over their 28 innings with only 11 runs coming as earned.
The MVP for the event was the aforementioned Ricardo Sobalvarro from South Dade who collected nine hits, including three for extra bases, three RBI and five runs scored. The MV-Pitcher was Chase Victor from Merrit Island, who tossed 6 1/3 innings on the mound in the semifinal game with 10 strikeouts and only one run allowed.
2016 Rawlings Select Classic #2 runner-up: Merritt Island Mustangs
