‘We’re scratching the surface’: Miami Sunset baseball aiming high amid turnaround season

Miami Sunset’s baseball field needed a major facelift.

So its players spent the past couple of years selling cookies before and after school to raise funds for the cause.

“We call them ‘Pillsbury Dough Boys,’” Sunset coach Julio Mendoza said. “It was worth it because you wouldn’t recognize our home field if you saw it now compared to what it looked like two years ago.”

But that’s not the most remarkable baseball transformation at the school by any stretch.

The Sunset baseball team itself desperately needed some sprucing up after winning only one game over the past two seasons.

The results have begun to show this season as the Knights are off to an 11-7 start, which earned them what’s believed to be their first ever berth in the GMAC tournament and will very likely result in a regional postseason berth for the first time in a decade.

Sunset is second in District 16-4A behind only state powerhouse Key West.

“One of the things we do differently is to focus on our energy and our effort instead of only the results,” said Mendoza, a former assistant coach at SLAM who was hired before the 2022 season. “We’re a process-driven program. I would credit that culture we’ve implemented and really a credit to the kids carrying it out. They work hard and I’m very lucky these kids get along so well. Most of them have known each other their whole lives and this is their home school so they’ve come back to play here.”

While Sunset hasn’t had the prolific state championship history of several others in Miami-Dade County, it is not bereft of baseball tradition.

A program that produced former major leaguer Raul Ibanez and more recently Michael Paez - a star at Coastal Carolina before being drafted in the fourth round by the New York Mets - fell on extremely hard times around the time of the COVID pandemic and soon after a 12-7 winning season in 2018.

The school’s enrollment has steadily shrunk from around 5,000 over a decade ago to 1,200 four years ago as several students have left to attend private and charter schools.

Mendoza was hired after the team’s winless 0-17 season in 2021, a season during which the Knights suffered 15 shutout losses, scored only four runs all season and were outscored 284-4.

His first season didn’t produce much better results in terms of wins and losses as Sunset finished 1-14, but the Knights did snap a 31-game losing streak with a victory over Westland Hialeah.

And if you ask Mendoza and some of his players, things felt different despite the record.

“Last season, we went 1-14 but we were much more competitive and you could feel that the energy was different,” Mendoza said. “We felt like this was the year to make us an option again.”

Even after putting together a more challenging schedule that included some tough competition from both Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, the Knights have broken through.

Sunset stormed out of the gate this season, winning its first seven games and nine of its first 10.

But then, another challenge surfaced when several key players began suffering injuries.

“Most teams wouldn’t survive some of the setbacks we’ve had this year especially since we really haven’t even gotten our foot in the ground yet when it comes to rebuilding (this program), but, again, that’s a credit to these kids,” Mendoza said.

The Knights lost not one, but two starting catchers to injuries. First, Nicholas Rodriguez, a University of South Florida commit, tore his labrum. A few games later, Sunset’s reserve backstop and only other true catcher on the roster, Nathan Londono, was knocked out of action when a bunt attempt ricocheted upward and lacerated his face.

Senior Daniel Perruc, one of the Knights’ starting pitchers, answered the call and has been behind the plate in recent games. Perruc closed out the win over Miami Springs on the mound, boosting his confidence.

“It’s been a lot of fun putting my brains on the other side of it and seeing how the catcher would be if I was pitching and knowing (the pitcher’s) perspective,” Perruc said.

On the mound, Sunset also lost its No. 1 pitcher for the season when senior Johan Hidalgo suffered some knee inflammation. Hidalgo, who is committed to Dyersburg State College in Tennessee, was 3-1 with 30 strikeouts and a 0.33 ERA over 21⅓ innings at the time he got hurt.

The Knights have leaned on pitchers A.J. Garcia, Andres Gonzalez and Kenny Manresa to pick up the slack on the mound.

“I think the kids are buying in and wanting to be together,” Perruc said. “It’s really thanks to coach Mendoza. Baseball is a very mental game and he teaches us to control what we can control and it’s made the game much easier for us.”

Sunset’s lineup has proven itself a potent lineup, hitting a combined 14 home runs this season and slashing .388 with a .609 slugging percentage.

Angel Santiago leads the group, hitting .571 with five home runs, two triples and 14 RBI. Santiago has struck out only five times this season.

Daniel Reyes is hitting .405 with four homers and 18 RBI while Nicholas Roca is hitting .409 with 10 RBI. Gonzalez has also contributed at the plate with three home runs and Jonathan Diamond is hitting .424 with 10 RBI.

“This year’s team has accomplished what we set out to do and that was to put us on the map, but I feel like next year is when the fun really begins,” Mendoza said. “We have a mix of younger and older players and we’re just going to continue to develop them and I feel like this young group will get us there.”

The other remarkable feat has been Sunset’s ability to restore its program to viability off the field.

In addition to its home field restoration thanks to its fundraising efforts, Mendoza said the Knights received a generous donation from Miami-based billionaire John Ruiz to help with renovations for the team’s clubhouse as well as equipment.

“It is difficult because funding isn’t always there,” Mendoza said. “We’ve been able to be fully self-funded. We have great support from our administration, don’t get me wrong, but it’s tough these days for public schools so it’s great to see how these boys have worked to put this together.”

Sunset is expected to advance to regionals this season for what would be the first time since 2013 when it made it all the way to the regional finals during Paez’s senior season.

That was the only season in which the Knights won a regional playoff game.

Sunset faces a tough potential postseason road with 11-time state champion Key West in its district. But the Knights have already proven themselves capable of competing against some of the best in the state, scoring a win back in March against another top contender in Class 4A when they beat Miami Springs.

“It’s been a culture change. It was tough when I got here,” Mendoza said. “For me, it’s been a great opportunity to build something from the ground up.

“And we’re just scratching the surface. We’re not even there yet.”

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