El Dorado Deflates No. 1 Key West With One-Hitter

A word to the young and not always wise: it’s never a good idea to swagger in front of an opponent you know nothing about.

Key West (Fla.) learned that lesson the hard way in the Dole National Classic baseball tournament Monday night at Amerige Park.

The Conchs, who entered the tournament ranked No. 1 in the country, unwittingly insulted some El Dorado players--their opponent in the first round--with their attitude. The Golden Hawks made them pay, upsetting the visitors, 5-0.

El Dorado pitchers Jordan DeJong (5-2) and Dave Myers combined for a one-hitter--a clean single to center by Conch third baseman Michael Balbuena off Myers leading off the sixth.

Otherwise the only other Key West baserunners were J.R. Mounts, who walked in the first and reached base on an error in the fourth, and Khalil Greene, who walked in the fourth. The Conchs’ only scoring threat came in the fourth, with men on second and third with none out, but could not get a runner home.

El Dorado first baseman B.J. Dyer got his team the only runs it needed in the second, blasting a two-run homer off Key West starter Randy Sterling. The Golden Hawks added single runs in the third, fifth and seventh.

Afterward, Dyer remarked with thinly veiled glee how much El Dorado wanted to deflate the egos of the Florida team.

“They seemed very overconfident,” Dyer said. “Before the game I and a couple of others saw them acting as if we were nothing compared to them.

“We made up our minds they were going to have to step up to beat us, not the other way around.”

Before the game Key West Coach Ralph Henriquez was soft-spoken but direct about why the Conchs (23-3), who are top-ranked in the USA Today poll, had taken two flights and flown a little more than six hours from the southernmost city in the contiguous U.S. to play in the tournament. And it was not to vacation.

“We don’t vacation until Friday,” Henriquez said. “No frills, no Disneyland. We came out here to win.

“When I came here three years ago, among my goals was for us to win a state title and get some national recognition. We won the state title last year and now we’re getting the recognition. The [mythical] national championship means a great deal to us.”

El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti had more provincial concerns, mainly finding some arms for his Golden Hawks (9-5) to take back into Empire League play, which they resume Friday.

“We want some of our young pitchers to get experience,” Gullotti said. “It’s good to be playing this caliber of competition; I feel it will make us better when we go back into league.”