NORTH PORT – Andreas Alvarez tossed a complete game, three-hit shutout as Northside Christian routed Imagine School, 11-0, in a Region 2A-3 quarterfinal Wednesday night.
The Mustangs senior right-hander walked two and struck out 12 as the Sharks only got one runner as far as second base all night.
The Auburn commit overpowered Imagine batters all night with a 95-mph fast ball, mixed in with an occasional breaking ball.
“It was overpowering, but I felt like we had a good game plan going into the game,” Alvarez said. “We had a couple of situations where we knew some guys were lacking with the bat speed so we knew we could speed it up on them and some guys had the bat speed so we hung a little slider to mix it up on them.
"I give a lot of praise to the guys who put up 11 runs for us. It’s nice to pitch with a lead, especially that big of a lead.”
Despite the lopsided final score, Sharks starter Jacob Lombard matched zeroes with Alvarez for the first four innings, except for a solo home run by Chase Perkey in the second inning. Northside led by just 1-0 after four innings when Sharks coach Steve Saborse went to his bullpen in the fifth.
“We didn’t want to have Lombard go through the order a third time,” Saborse said. “We tried to get an inning out of (Alexis) Pereira. He’s been there all year for us, but hitting is contagious and they just caught up to the ball.”
The Mustangs (18-9) quickly loaded the bases against Pereira on a double, a fielder's choice and a hit batter. Designated hitter Turner Gross delivered a two-run single to make it 3-0. After a wild pitch, Luke Anderson followed with another base hit to score two more.
Northside added three more runs in the sixth and seventh innings off RJ Cooper and Peyton Rassbach.
“My hat’s off to Northside Christian, a very disciplined team at the plate and in the field,” Saborse said. “Probably the best defensive team we saw and the best pitcher we’ve seen all season.”
Cooper, Lombard, and Jason Conte had the three singles for Imagine, but Alvarez ended each inning with a strikeout.
“When you have a guy like Andreas Alvarez on the mound, that’s always a good thing,” Mustangs coach Robert Rodriguez said. “But our offense woke up today as well. Because one through nine, Imagine is going to compete. If you don’t pound the zone and you don’t attack and you start to nibble here and there, they’re going to make you pay for it.
"They’re competing in the box, whether they’ve seen a guy like Andreas or not, and you could see why they’re district champs and you can see why they went 14-9 going into this game."
The Sharks ended their season with their first district championship and will only lose one senior, catcher Joseph Standford, next year.
“I can’t say enough about the team, the coaches and the support from the community for a great season,” Saborse said. “We’re already looking forward to next season, probably having 9 or 10 seniors, and as freshmen become sophomores and sophomores become juniors, everybody gets stronger, quicker and faster, so we’ll be ready.
"We want to go back-to-back as district champions, get here again and have a different outcome."
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