Miami Dade Holds Off Florida Southwestern, Wins 3-1 Behind Vargas’ Strong Start

Miami Dade took care of business at home on Saturday, riding a dominant outing from starter Jordan Vargas and early run support to edge out Florida Southwestern State College 3-1.

The Sharks jumped ahead quickly in the bottom of the first. Michael Petite ripped an RBI double that brought in David Zamora, then Talan Beckford followed with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Cian Copeland to make it 2-0.

Florida Southwestern responded in the fourth with their only run of the game. Michael McAloose doubled and later came around to score on a single by Ty Hamilton, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

Miami Dade wasted no time answering back. In the bottom half of the same inning, Willy Mendez delivered a clutch RBI double to the gap in left center, scoring Santiago Carriles-Alvarado and pushing the lead back to two.

That was all Vargas needed. The right-hander improved to 7-2, tossing 7 innings of one-run ball, allowing 7 hits while striking out 5. Andy Mesa came on in relief and closed the door with 2 scoreless innings, earning the save.

Offensively, both teams finished with 7 hits, but Miami Dade made theirs count. Petite and Mendez each doubled and drove in a run, while Beckford added the sacrifice fly RBI. Defensively, the Sharks worked around a pair of errors and stranded 11 Buccaneers on base.