Island Coast’s baseball team kept its strong season rolling Friday night with a 13-3 win over North Fort Myers propelled by a big first inning.  

The Gators sent 12 batters to the plate and pushed across eight runs in the home half of the first with RBI contributions from AJ Finco, Kevin Martinez, Demetrius McCants, Javi Cabrera and Kevin Rodriguez.  

Island Coast (16-4) would tack on four more in the fifth and another in the sixth to end the affair early.  

Cabrera finished 2-for-2 with three RBI, two runs scored and a walk, while centerfielder Rodriguez, the leadoff hitter, collected two hits and three RBI, a stolen base and scored two runs.

The win completes a three-game sweep of the Red Knights (9-12) in which the Gators outscored their opponent 20-8.  

“We haven’t been swinging it well until this week. I think we’ve made a concentrated effort all throughout the year to work through the middle of the field and I feel that this week is the first week that the players bought into that,” said Island Coast head coach Clint Montgomery. “We were hitting the balls in the gaps and scoring guys from first throughout the series, and when you can do that, that’s when your offense is really rolling. We executed small ball well this week and put on a show.” 

After surrendering two runs in the top of the first via a Logan Smith two-run double, Island Coast starter Dylan Masters settled in and was solid over 4 2/3 innings of work, allowing three runs on eight hits, striking out six and issuing two walks.  

“I thought he struggled a bit with his command early in the game, but I think scoring the runs in the first inning helped take some of the pressure off,” Montgomery said. “Once he started getting the curveball over more consistently, his results were better.” 

Senior Noah Petrovich came in and tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for the Gators, retiring all four batters he faced consecutively.  

“Noah did a good job behind him. He came in throwing strikes, keeping the ball down,” Montgomery said. Red Knight junior Gavin Hause would produce an RBI double in the fourth, but that was all the scoring North could muster.  

“Hats off to them, they swung it all three games. My message to ours guys is that we can only focus on what we can control,” said North head coach Jeff Rose. “Our issue is leaving runners on base, and that’s been our issue for the last four games. We’re not doing the job of executing.” 

North starter Logan Smith was pulled in the first after allowing six runs, recording just one out. Hause worked the remaining 2/3 of the first before Aiden Denlinger came on in relief. Denlinger was solid over four innings, the only blemishes coming in the fifth thanks to sloppy defense.  

“He’s been a guy who we’ve needed his bat and his arm, and he’s been good this season,” Rose said. “He did a great job.” 

The Red Knights are fighting for the No. 3 seed in the 5A District 10 standings, while the Gators sit in second behind Fort Myers (15-5, 3-0 in district).  

“I’m trying to get my guys to understand it’s on us,” Rose said. “I’m telling them to just hustle and battle and situational hit. Everybody can contribute. They need to see that and not have the mindset that everything is going wrong. You just take care of your job and all of a sudden this becomes an easier game.” 

Montgomery said the focus for his squad down the stretch is to continue to work on turning in complete performances.  

“I still don’t think we’ve played our best baseball game of the season yet,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep striving to keep getting better every day.” 

On Monday, North dropped a close contest to Estero 5-4 in the “Battle of the Border” tournament at Terry Park in Fort Myers.  

Island Coast will host South Fort Myers (10-9) at home Tuesday night at 7 p.m. 

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