Seminole Ridge Shocks Palm Beach Gardens 3-1 In 8A Quarterfinal

Seminole Ridge lefty Jake Paez held the Gators offense at bay to preserve the victory and earn his first save of the year.

Plenty of teams may have packed it in after the way Seminole Ridge started its season.

The team was swept the first time through their district schedule and found itself at the bottom of their district standings.

Yet they rebounded to rewrite their history books, battling back to qualify for the 8A regional playoffs as the 8A-10 runner ups.

But on Saturday afternoon the Hawks added their greatest chapter with a 3-1 victory over Palm Beach Gardens for their first regional playoff victory in school history.

“It was such a great feeling to see them celebrate after that big win,” Hawks Manager Trent Pendergast said. “They put it together. This is the best group we’ve had, just great people. They went through struggles and could have packed it in, but we went back to the drawing board and managed to play great.”

The Hawks (14-12-1) will now travel to face Jupiter in a Class 8A regional semifinal Tuesday night.

The game was originally slated for earlier in the week, then had to be rescheduled again after rain forced the teams off the field in the second inning with the Hawks leading 1-0.

The teams returned to Joe Russo Field in Palm Beach Gardens to complete the contest on Saturday, where the Hawks were able to replicate the intensity they opened with the prior evening to stay in control of the momentum.

“We were excited to start on Friday, and we were intense,” said Pendergast. “We scratched a run across to get the momentum, and that seemed to carry over for us again today.”

Freshman Kyle Farjad (3-3) pitched two scoreless innings on Friday to qualify for the victory, before the Hawks turned the ball over to lefty Jake Paez to start on Saturday.

Facing a talented Gardens team that had gone all the way to states the year before and was fresh off an upset over Jupiter for the District 8A-9 crown, Paez managed to work his way through trouble in scattering seven hits but keeping the damage to just one run allowed.

Gardens catcher J.J. Schwarz had a triple and scored the team’s only run to break up the shutout in the sixth inning.

The junior pitched the final five innings and recorded three strikeouts to preserve the victory and earn his first save of the season.

“Our guy was pounding the zone,” Pendergast said. “He’s got a nice two-seam fastball and a nice curveball, and he got a lot of ground balls. We turned a few double plays for him, and he was just spot on today.”

Second baseman Mark Kuhner led the Hawks offense in going 2-for-3, and drove in Alex Aristy to give the team a valuable insurance run in the top of the seventh.

The Gators (20-8) battled back in the bottom of the sixth inning, as catcher JJ Schwarz led off with an opposite-field shot that went for a triple, and then scored on a fielder’s choice RBI groundout from Matt Williams.

But the Gators would draw no closer, as the Hawks held on to close out the biggest victory they have ever earned.

“Just to beat a phenomenal team like that is a great feeling,” Pendergast said. “It’s really special for these kids. We’re pretty excited and it’s a big win for us. It was a great game.”

The team now faces the tall task of taking on a tough Jupiter team at their place. But an encouraging fact comes in that 10 of the team’s victories came on the road this season.

Special Correspondent Davis de Montluzin contributed to this report.

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