Stoneman Douglas baseball remaining consistent through the toughest of challenges

They can beat you with power.

They can beat you with “small ball.”

They can pitch and they can defend.

But even a team as complete as the Stoneman Douglas baseball team is bound to have some close calls this time of year.

It’s the Eagles’ ability to remain consistent that has kept them unbeaten despite challenges from some of the best competition nationwide.

Friday night provided another test and another example of that quality when Douglas held off perennial title contender Miami Columbus for an 8-6 win at the Explorers’ home field.

The Eagles (13-0), winners of two consecutive state and national championships, won their 35th game in a row and have not lost since dropping a regular season game against Lake Worth Park Vista on March 22, 2022.

Douglas, a squad with over a dozen Division-I signees, has ridden its hot start to this season to a No. 3 national ranking by both MaxPreps and Perfect Game.

“I just think (the consistency) comes from our work in practice,” Douglas coach Todd Fitz-Gerald said. “It’s our time to get our minds right and prepare for situations like these. It should make gamedays a lot slower and fun for the kids and it does. These kids have been together for so long. Everybody has a role and they embrace it.”

The Eagles showed all four of those previously mentioned things they do well both in building an early 6-0 lead and later in protecting it and adding a couple of insurance runs to come out with another win.

It was a key victory for Douglas against Columbus, who it beat last year to advance to the state final four in Fort Myers. Douglas also beat Columbus in the state semifinals in 2021 and in the state final in 2016. With both teams still in Class 7A, a playoff rematch is possible.

“We were dealing with some adversity, bases loaded (situations), loud crowd, and a really good atmosphere for a baseball game,” Fitz-Gerald said. “The game was played well on both sides and I couldn’t be happier for these guys how they handled it especially on spring break which is always a tough week. For us to come back and weather the storm and to be tested says a lot about the team.”

Left fielder Dillion Moquin, an Appalachian State signee, hit a solo home run in the second and University of Florida commit Christian Rodriguez belted a two-run homer in the third to ignite Douglas’ bats early against Columbus starter Jason Vasquez.

After Columbus answered with two runs in the fourth off Douglas junior and UF commit Jayden Dubanewicz, Vanderbilt signee Matt Ossenfort crushed a pitch from Explorers reliever Matt Rios over the “blue monster” wall in left field at their home park.

Columbus wasn’t done though.

The Explorers scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth, taking advantage of some lack of command by Dubanewicz, who loaded the bases by giving up singles to Luis Miguel and Zahir Barjam and walking Frank Francisco and Santiago Carilles to force in a run. Two batters later, sophomore reliever Luke Cherry walked home another run with the bases loaded. Two batters after that, Carlos Jacome bounced a ball past the pitcher’s mound, allowing him to reach and score two more runs.

But then Cherry induced an inning-ending fly out to right by Julien Gonzalez.

Rodriguez led off the seventh with a single and Moquin singled two batters later to move Rodriguez to third, setting up a sacrifice fly by Gavin Gargiulo, a UCF commit.

Cherry then worked around a one-out walk in the bottom of the inning, striking out Carilles to end the game.

The victory was the first in a challenging three-game stretch for the Eagles, who will next play at two-time defending state champion North Broward Prep (10-3) and Archbishop McCarthy (12-1), which has only lost to IMG Academy - the nation’s top-ranked team - so far this season.

“If we can get through that gauntlet, I feel really good about us,” Fitz-Gerald said.