NORTH PORT – Imagine School baseball coach Steve Saborse rolled the dice on Tuesday night, starting No. 3 pitcher Alexis Pereira against Sarasota Christian in the District 2A-11 semifinals.
But Saborse’s gamble turned out to be the perfect chess move.
Pereira struck out 11 Blazers hitters on the way to a complete-game shutout as Imagine cruised to a 5-0 win at Atwater Community Park.
The win advances the Sharks to the district championship, in which it will have both of its top starting pitchers, RJ Cooper and Jacob Lombard, available to throw a full pitch count against Out-of-Door Academy on Thursday.
“It was risky, but we had confidence in him and he pitched well,” Saborse said of starting Pereira over Cooper and Lombard. “He was great last year. He was actually our No. 1 last year, but we had a couple of kids step up (this year).
"He had a case of the sophomore blues a little bit this year, but we knew he was due to come out and have a great game and we had everybody available behind him in case.”
Pereira went 5-1 last season with a 0.61 ERA and 54 strikeouts across 57 2/3 innings. This season, however, he wasn’t nearly as dominant – going 1-1 with a 4.05 ERA and 29 strikeouts across 27 ⅔ innings entering Tuesday night.
“It’s part of the game,” Pereira said of shifting back to No. 3 after pitching as the team’s ace as a freshman. “Everyone has their role and you have to embrace it. All I was trying to do tonight was throw strikes and go out there and have fun with my teammates.”
The plan was for Pereira to last at least four innings, but the sophomore right-hander never gave his coaches much reason to think about pulling him, especially with the Sharks jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
Sharks junior Shalom Carrasquillo started the scoring as he knocked in Cooper Boggess with an RBI double to left field with one out in the inning.
Junior Jason Conte added on to the scoring a few batters later as he drove in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Finally, a throwing error on a ground ball hit by RJ Cooper brought two more runs home to give Imagine an early four-run cushion.
Sarasota Christian (11-12-1), meanwhile, didn’t record its first hit until freshman Evan Poznanski singled with one out in the top of the fourth inning.
That was when Pereira ran into his only trouble of the night.
He followed up that single by walking senior Luke Leclair and then allowed a single to sophomore Collin Lawson, but Sharks right fielder Dominic Poole cut down Poznanski at the plate on Lawson’s single – ending the Blazers’ best chance to score.
"We wanted four, but we decided at four that we'd keep him in," Saborse said. "He got in trouble and we were gonna change him, but he responded and pretty much pitched flawlessly the rest of the game."
Pereira settled in from there, striking out six of the next 11 batters he faced as he allowed just one runner to reach base – on a throwing error to lead off the sixth inning.
Imagine added on its fifth and final run in the home half of the fifth when Carrasquillo hit an RBI single that bounced over the third baseman’s head.
Carrasquillo led Imagine offensively, going 2-for-3 with a single, a double and two RBI. Lombard reached base in all three of his plate appearances on a single, a hit-by-pitch and a fielding error. Cooper went 1-for-4 with a triple.
The Sharks now find themselves in the district championship against ODA for a third straight season, seeking their first title in program history.
But this year is already looking different.
“I’ll be up there cheering on my team just like all of the other guys on the bench,” said Pereira, a pitcher-only player who will have to sit out the district championship after throwing 93 pitches on Tuesday night. “We’ve got it. We’ve been the underdog all these years, and we’re ready to put our name on the map. We’ve got this one. This is our year.”
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