On March 9, the Cavaliers baseball team went up against the Miami High Stingrays baseball team at the Cavaliers’ home field, defeating them with a score of 11-1. Prior to the season, the Cavaliers baseball team was full of young talent but lacked the experience needed to have an impact. Knowing that this is a tough division, the team needed to learn how to cooperate and grow together very quickly if they wanted to compete with other schools at a high level.

In preparation for the upcoming season, the first couple weeks of practice consisted of conditioning and multiple throwing drills for each players’ position. They then followed up their training with hitting drills and fielding plays to sharpen their skills on the field. Towards the end, they worked on situational defense and specific game situations, like bunting and pick-offs. A big focus of preseason was learning how to work as a team on the field, which they did through inner squad games amongst themselves.

In the first inning, the Cavaliers took the early lead against Miami High by one. They then had a rough inning on defense in the second inning as the Sting Rays scored one off a throwing error. After that, our pitcher, Justin Bohanon, shut their offense down and their bats were silent for the rest of the game, but the Cavaliers offense kept piling on runs throughout the innings. The Cavaliers hitting were consistent at getting runners on base, moving them over and driving them in.

Hector Perez had a huge impact at shortstop and made a handful of plays. Perez and right fielder Jose Medrano both hit triples to drive in runs. Going into the sixth, the Cavaliers were up 8-1. They continued to play confidently and aggressively by consistently getting the opponent’s batters out by either the hands of the pitcher or the Cavaliers incredible fielding. They were having fun as the energy in the dugout was high and consistent throughout the game. They did not take their feet off the gas nearing the end and got another three runs in the sixth inning, which led the game to be called due to the mercy rule. The mercy rule is called into action once one of the two teams falls behind by a score of 10, usually after five to seven innings pass. The final score was 11-1 after 6 innings.

“It was a great win for us, especially since it was a district game and Miami High was ahead of us in the district beforehand. With this win, we jumped ahead of both Miami High and Coral Park in the district, which is huge,” junior Hayden Hohman said.

A big focus for the Cavaliers this past week has been giving it their all, but most importantly, having fun while doing it. It has worked well with two wins added to their record and they have to keep it up going for the following game next Thursday at Southwest. They are coming in 4-0 to start the season, so it is a game to look forward to.