The 8A Regional Semifinal between Coral Glades and Atlantic packed “Little Fenway” to the brim Tuesday night as the two teams faced off for the fourth time this season. The Atlantic Eagles bested the visiting Coral Glades Jaguars twice in the regular season and once on April 20 in the 8A District 13 Championship. Both teams were coming off of wins in the Regional Quarterfinals, Atlantic a dominant 10-3 victory over the Piper Bengals at home and Coral Glades a 6-4 win on the road against St. Thomas Aquinas. Vanderbilt commit (per PerfectGame) Jake Eder (3-1), who gave the Jaguars hitters trouble in the District Championship, faced off against Jaguars’ ace and Bethune-Cookman signee TJ Densmore (4-4). Eder showed his dominance, throwing six strong innings and giving up just two runs on three hits while fanning eight batters, and errors on defense plagued the Jaguars who gave up six runs on their way to a 6-2 loss.

The Eagles began their offensive attack early, first pitch early, as Alex Cordes singled to centerfield on the first pitch he saw after Eder sat down the first three Jaguars batters in order. A sac-bunt and a ball advanced Cordes to third, who scored easily on Justin Varisco’s triple to deep right field. Varisco touched home on a passed ball and Atlantic took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Densmore regained his composure, striking out the next two batters to end the inning, but the Jaguars had dug themselves an early hole.

Once again, mishaps put the Jaguars in a bad position when Cameron Husing scored from second base on a pickoff attempt to first. Down 3-1 in the top of the fifth inning, Steven Godoy, one of Coral Glades’ hottest hitters in the past few weeks, broke up Eder’s no-hitter with a lead-off double to the wall. After advancing to third on a groundout, Godoy took the game into his own hands on a gutsy call to steal home on a ball just a few feet away from the catcher, Godoy beat the throw and put the Jaguars on the board, down 3-1.

Smart base running and another error led to a three-run fifth inning for the Eagles who held a comfortable 6-1 lead heading into the sixth inning. After inheriting bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, Adam Persiner proceeded to strike out the side and keep the Eagles from putting the game out of reach in the final inning.

Once again, Steven Godoy doubled to left field in the seventh and later in the inning TJ Densmore followed suit, with an RBI double to left, bringing Godoy around to score for his second run of the game. After walking Dennis Leon to set up runners on first and second, Johnson Scott relieved Eder and picked up the third out to end the game.

Atlantic finished their four-game sweep of their district rival and will face the winner of Mater Academy and Westland Hialeah, who will play tomorrow night, in the Regional Finals. As for the Jaguars, their historic run comes to an end, after picking up their first regional win in school history.