Harvester Bees Cruise into District Championship

MESQUITE, Texas – The Bees will play for another title.

No. 1-ranked Dallas College Eastfield pounded its way into the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III South Central District championship Friday after run-ruling Dallas College Mountain View 23-9 in five innings. The semifinal win sends the Harvester Bees on to Saturday's 11 a.m. championship to meet Dallas College Brookhaven (26-28).

The Harvester Bees batted around in the second and third innings, scoring 18 runs in those innings to overwhelm a potent offense in itself in Mountain View during an hour-and-a-half stretch in a game where 30 runs had been scored before the third inning was complete.

Eastfield (43-13) scored in each of its four at-bats, using a home run by Erik Aguirre to spark a three-run first. The Lions (22-31) used a Scooter New homer in the second to pull within two. But the Bees' bats went ballistic in the second, each hitter in the lineup either scoring or providing an RBI in a 10-run onslaught as they batted around to take a 13-1 lead.

"Anywhere I can bring energy for the squad," Aguirre said. "We dropped an eight-spot in the third. Coming back in the dugout, we're saying, 'Hey, we're good. We're the No. 1 team in the nation for a reason. We go out there, we can put up another 10-spot.' We do the same thing. Palma came up huge for us there (with) a monster nuke. It's just a lot of fun."

Palma hit his nation-leading 26^th home run of the season in his second at-bat in the eight-run third. That came after Mountain View put up eight runs of its own in the third on six hits. Diego Washington's two-run single against his former team and Adrien Varela's two-run double highlighted the Lions' third to cut it to 13-9.

But Eastfield responded with another crooked number, scoring eight more in its half of the inning to take a 23-9 lead. From there, the Harvester Bees' relievers did the rest.

"I don't think there's a single guy in that bullpen I don't trust," Aguirre said. "Everyone that goes on that mound, I have full faith in them. If it's not their day, it's not their day. We've got another guy who can come out there and pick 'em up."

After Mountain View scored eight runs in the third, the Bees' relievers shut the door over the final two innings, giving up two hits in the eight batters they faced. New was 3 for 3, and Varela and Washington both went 1 for 3 with two RBI apiece.

Aguirre was 2 for 2 with two walks and four runs scored. His first-inning homer was his 11^th of the season. Palma went 3 for 4. Jayden Boyd had three hits, including a two-run single up the middle in the second, a homer in the third and a walk in his four plate appearances.

All nine hitters in Eastfield's lineup hit safely.

"God blessed this team with a lot of amazing people," Aguirre said. "We've got a bunch of talent on this squad. We got a really good shot at the national championship. But first thing's first, we've got to focus on winning the championship here."