Doing his best Shohei Ohtani impersonation, senior Danny Ramirez struck out 11 and drove in two runs in leading the Osceola Kowboys to a 5-0 win over Lake Nona in the Class 7A, District 9 championship game Friday.
The win lifted the Kowboys to 21-5 and ensures Osceola a playoff home game Tuesday; they play Lake Worth Park Vista at 7 p.m.
Friday was Osceola’s 14th win in their last 15 games and gave them their fourth district title since 2016.
“I guess when you get great pitching, timely hitting and play good defense, this game is pretty easy to coach,” Coach Scott Birchler joked after the contest. “Seriously though, it was another classic game between these two teams. The two regular season games had a playoff feel to them and this one tonight was more of the same. I was talking to their coaches before the game and we both felt it was highly likely we could meet again in the regional semifinals.”
It was the third meeting between the two schools. Osceola threw a one-hitter against the Lions but lost a 3-2 decision on March 2 and came back to defeat Lake Nona, 2-1, nine days later. The teams also met in the district finals last year (a Lake Nona win) and in the regional semifinals (an Osceola win).
If Osceola wins Tuesday it would travel to Jupiter, the top seed in the region, on Friday, or host Palm Beach Central, depending on who wins their game Tuesday. If they are to meet Lake Nona again, both teams would have to win two regional playoff games. If that happens, the Lions and Kowboys would play for a fourth time on May 17.
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. Regardless of who we end up playing next we know we are going to see a good team. But if both of us advance it is going to be something.”
For now, the Kowboys will take a day to enjoy the district title.
Relying on an explosive curveball, Ramirez was dominating – allowing just four hits, one hit batter and no walks in lifting his record to 6-0 on the season while lowering his team-leading ERA to 0.98.
“I wasn’t really happy with the way I pitched in my last two outings,” Ramirez said. “But I got into a groove early and was able to throw the curve for strikes and stay ahead of the hitters. Nick (Palmi)’s play in the second fired me up even more. When they got the first two on in the sixth, I just tried to bear down. I think I can be sort of a bulldog, in that there was no way I wanted to come out of the game.”
Ramirez only got in to any type of trouble twice. His own throwing error on an errant pickoff attempt put Omar Lopez on third base with one out in the second. But short stop Nick Palmi gunned Lopez out at the plate on Daniel Gomez’s ground ball and Ramirez followed by striking out the next batter to end the inning. After giving up back-to-back singles to open the Lions sixth, Ramirez got through the heart of Lake Nona order by striking out the 3-4-5 hitters to end the inning.
It remained a scoreless tie until the top of the fourth (although playing at home, Osceola was the lower seed and was technically the visitor), when Palmi’s ground ball went through Luis Machado’s legs at second. When Lion’s outfielders were slow getting to the ball, Palmi aggressively took the extra base to get to second. A ground out to the right side moved Palmi to third and Ramirez would drive in the game’s first run with by grounding out to deep short.
That same aggressive base running upped the lead to 2-0 in the sixth. With two outs, Louis Rodriguez slashed a ball down the right field line and through his sheer determination and hustle turned the double into a triple. Ramirez then singled to drive in Rodriguez and make it a 2-0 game.
“We always try to be aggressive on the base paths, but we always try to be smart about it. You can’t hesitate when taking chances and both Nick and Louis never hesitated in making key plays,” Birchler said.
After Ramirez pitched out of the jam in the sixth, the Kowboys would break the game wide open in the top of the seventh. Two walks and a bloop single by number nine hitter Luis Nunez, chased Lake Nona starter Drew Rosenberg from the game. On a 1-2 pitch from ace reliever Myles Lovato, Isaiah Jean-Baptist cleared the bases with a double – driving the ball into the right-center gap.
From there, Ramirez pitched a 1-2-3 inning – striking out Juan Villa for the final out.
“Not much to say, Danny was dominating tonight. He’s a senior and a four-year starter,” Birchler said of the outing by Ramirez. “When he is getting his curve over for strikes he is going to be hard to beat.”
Regional brackets will be announced this weekend.
