Spanish River’s Bats Lead Sharks To 9-5 Victory Over Coral Shores

Spanish River players celebrate following a big run-scoring moment in its 9-5 win over Coral Shores.

Spanish River coach William Harvey is not all that crazy about preseason baseball games that don’t really count for anything.

But following the Sharks’ 9-5 victory over Coral Shores on Thursday night in the team’s preseason tournament, the coach appreciated the practice game for his young club.

“We have five freshmen on the team, and they all played tonight, so it was a great experience for them,” Harvey said. “Guys got hits who really needed to, who had never played varsity baseball before, and we want that to happen for them.”

The Sharks used four pitchers and also brought in five pinch-hitters during the contest, which was the late game of the Spanish River Preseason Tournament played at Spanish River High. In all, Spanish River had eight hits, culminating with Alex Demchale’s bases-clearing double in the top of the seventh inning.

The host Sharks jumped to an early 2-0 advantage to open the game, as Josh Bloom and Luca Rispoli came in to score on an RBI double by Mark Jiahrsdoeffer.

The slim advantage held up while starter Mike Chambers was in the game. The right-hander was dominant during three innings of work, pounding the zone for 36 strikes on 46 total pitches. Chambers was effective at getting ahead in the count, throwing a first-pitch strike to nearly every batter he faced.

“It’s my first time in a game in two months, and everything was working,” Chambers said. “I try to jump ahead of batters. When you’re ahead in the count, you can do a lot of stuff.”

Chambers did not allow any hits or walks, but he did hit a batter while registering seven strikeouts. He admits to enjoying the role as the team’s big-game pitcher.

“He’ll hold his own against anybody,” Harvey said. “He’s got good command of his pitches and he’ll maintain velocity through the game. He’s very athletic and he kept his pitch count low.”

Spanish River’s Josh Bloom prepares to lead off the game. He was 2-for-3 with two runs.

Spanish River extended that lead during a four-run fourth inning. It was Rispoli who came up with the big hit, as he connected for a deep shot that cleared the loaded bases, but he was caught out trying to stretch the hit for a triple.

The Hurricanes were finally able to answer back against reliever Ryan Berger when Tyler Hudson walked, stole second and came in on a sacrifice fly from David Bogue. Josh Sands also came in on an RBI from Danny Wallengk to trim the deficit to 6-2.

Coral Shores edged even closer when Sands again came up with a big RBI double that brought the score to 6-5.
But after Demchale’s big hit opened the lead again, freshman Ian Morton threw a scoreless 1-2-3 seventh inning to close it out.

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by former Sharks player and current Minnesota Twin Danny Valencia. His pitch unsurprisingly went for a perfect strike.

“These were the best times, playing baseball with my friends out here,” Valencia admitted. “I keep trying to explain that to these guys, but I don’t think they get it yet. But playing baseball at this field was really the time of my life. It was really fun.”

In the matinee game of the tournament, Olympic Heights overcame a 6-2 deficit for a 7-6 victory over Lake Worth as Casey Furnas tossed two relief innings while allowing just one hit and recording one strikeout to earn the victory. Sean McClaskie and David Berger had RBI singles during the comeback.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!