By Dave Brousseau

PARKLAND – The Douglas High baseball team proved they are driven in its bid to win a sixth straight state championship.

And Southwest Miami was painfully on the receiving end of a 20-4 loss in the second game of the  Class 7A regional semifinal best of three series on Saturday afternoon.

Douglas (24-5) will host West Broward (22-8) in the regional final best of three series beginning on Friday. The Bobcats defeated Douglas earlier this season 9-5.

After struggling to produce timely hits in Friday’s game one 1-0 victory, Douglas produced 17 hits, including a grand slam from Jake Rizzo in the first inning and another by Gio Rojas in the fourth inning.

The duo combined for 10 RBI in the afternoon game. Matthew Toback and Reid Dadic each added two RBI apiece.

“Obviously a different outcome from the first game,” said Douglas coach Todd Fitz-Gerald. “We had big hit after big hit and being patient at the plate. We got good pitches to swing at and did a nice job.”

Rizzo’s slam was his fifth home run of the season, helping give the team 33 round trippers on the season.

“We could feel the energy right off the bat,” said Rizzo. “We were the away team and wanted to apply pressure first. We did our job with nine runs in the first. Nothing’s easy from here and we need to keep grinding.”

Douglas sealed the game in the top of the fourth inning with eight runs, keyed by Rojas’ slam.

The 20 runs were a team record both in a regular season or playoff game. It was the eighth time this season that Douglas scored at least 10 runs in a game.

Dave Brousseau is a veteran journalist who worked at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and is a longtime BCAA Correspondent. Need to reach out to him? Contact him at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.