Falcons Walk Off In Victory Over Suncoast in Forest Hill First-Pitch Tournament

Forest Hill's Dylan Barahona singling in the first inning. Barahona was 3-for-4.

The focus of preseason baseball is not always necessarily about winning the game.

Most often teams are tinkering with lineups and situations in order to better prepare for when the games start counting next week.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel great to win, and really great when the victory comes in dramatic walk-off fashion.

Forest Hill did just that on Wednesday evening, as Juan Garces’ bloop single to shallow right field drove in Ryan Mahoney to give the Falcons a 4-3 victory over Suncoast in the opening game of the school’s First-Pitch Tournament.

“Last year, we couldn’t get a win in our own tournament,” Forest Hill coach Russ Milliken joked. “We knew that if we kept putting enough guys on base, eventually we would score.”

The host Falcons’ bats had been quiet and inconsistent early on. After an ugly seventh inning in which they committed four errors and allowed Suncoast to tie it at 3, they responded with a spirited effort in the game’s final frame. Mahoney was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, Jose Crespo singled and starting pitcher Mike Murray walked to load the bases and bring up Garces.

“I was standing on deck, and I just knew it was going to come down to me batting with two outs,” Garces admitted. “I got an outside fastball and I got under it, and I just got lucky that it went fair.”

The blooper arched perfectly over the Chargers’ first baseman and dropped a few inches in play just out of the reach of three charging Suncoast fielders.

It is Garces first career walk off-hit.

Suncoast’s Shane Quo was key in the Chargers’ sixth-inning rally

“This is the craziest way to start the season,” Garces said. “We stuck in the game and did not put our heads down, and it’s a rewarding feeling.”

After the Chargers struggled to find success against Murray, the Falcons ace starter, they finally got a big inning in the top of the seventh while trailing 3-1. Catcher Troy Hoecker singled to lead off, and his courtesy-runner, Matt Coleman, stole second. Carson Morris struck out in the next at-bat, but still reached base on a passed ball.

Justin Walker then followed by reaching on an error, which brought in Coleman, and Shane Quo’s infield hit was fielded and thrown to home, but the catcher was unable to hold the ball and Morris scored the tying run.

“This was an experience that is beneficial in our season,” Suncoast coach B.J. Gilbert said. “We stayed in the game the whole time and the young guys got some experience. We played well tonight and we never quit.”

Suncoast third baseman Justin Walker warms up before the game.

Hoecker was 3-for-3 in the game, accounting for more than half of the team’s five total hits.

Murray was in control through his five innings of work, throwing 46 of his 64 pitches for strikes and recording seven strikeouts. After the Chargers worked three consecutive singles in the first, taking a 1-0 lead when Calvin Page scored on an RBI from Morris, they could manage only one more hit the rest of the way against him.

“Mike is the type of guy that I give him the ball in the first and he still has it in the seventh,” Milliken said. “You better bring some friends with you if you try to go out and pull him from the game.”

Suncoast’s early lead held up against starter David Corn until the fourth inning. The Falcons managed to put runners in scoring position but couldn’t get that one play to push them across the plate.

“Suncoast played great defense and they made plays,” Milliken said. “Nobody told them they were gonna lose, that’s for sure.”

The Falcons take the field against Suncoast in the First-Pitch Tournament.

Brayan Ofarrill had a line-drive single to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning, and eventually scored to tie it on a passed ball. Courtesy-runner Anthony Batista came in to score on a well-executed double steal with runners on the corners.

Dylan Barahona singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, and Crespo had an RBI double to drive him in. Barahona was 3-for-4 with a pair of stolen bases on the night.

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