Gibbons’ Woodrey Whiffs Ten In Shutting Down Ft. Lauderdale 11-0

If streaks, both winning and losing, are accurate barometers of future events, then the outcome of last nights game between the Chiefs of Cardinal Gibbons and the Ft. Lauderdale Flying L’s should have been relatively easy to predict.

It’s been two weeks since the District 15-4A rivals last met one another. On that occasion, Gibbons topped Ft. Lauderdale 8-1 in a non-district game. Since then, the Chiefs dropped both of their games by a combined score of 16-4. By contrast, the Flying L’s won all three of their encounters, outscoring the opposition 24-7.

But as we all know, records are made to be broken and streaks must inevitably come to an end. And so it was last night, when the Chiefs took it to the Flying L’s 11-0 in a key district contest.

Striking early and often, the Chiefs scored three unearned runs in the first inning when a two-out error extended the frame. Both Anthony Cerquozzi and Richard Lang took advantage of the early miscue by drilling RBI singles through the left side of the infield.

Picking up where they left off, Gibbons added a five-spot in the second inning to extend their lead to 8-0. Timely hits were delivered by Thomas Woodrey, a two-run single up the middle, and Jimmy Noonan’s RBI infield hit.

Ft. Lauderdale’s only threat against an otherwise unhittable Woodrey came in their half of the second when Christian Shields beat out a slow roller to the right side and Kenny Miggins singled to left. The runners both advanced ninety feet on a successful double steal, but the Chief’s ace southpaw got out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts to end the threat.

Woodrey continued his domination by striking out the side in order in the third and fourth innings, running his consecutive strikeout streak to eight on his way to an incredible ten in only four innings of work.

“I was really hitting the inside corner with my fastball,” said Woodrey when asked what his best pitch was. “I think that was the most important thing. I didn’t have to throw that much off-speed. I was able to locate my pitches tonight and I believe that’s why I was successful.”

Summing up his pitcher’s performance, Coach Frank Pisani simply stated, “He had everything going tonight. He was definitely the MVP of the game.”

Ft. Lauderdale’s Logan White pitched very well after falling behind 8-0 with only one down in the second inning. He recorded a pair of strikeouts in innings two, four and five, before striking out the side in the sixth. He finished with nine strikeouts in only six innings. The only hits he allowed after a shaky one and one-third innings to start the game were senior LF Jordan Selbach’s solo homer in the fifth, pinch-hitter Mark Nowatnic’s single, and Cerquozzi’s two-run double in the sixth.

Had it not been for some pretty sloppy fielding by his teammates, White might have fared a lot better on the evening.

Michael Hanke and Brian Stark each hurled a scoreless inning for the victorious Chiefs.

When asked about the significance of the win, Coach Pisani replied, “I’m very proud of our guys. We [the staff] told them how important this game was. We knew that we were playing for the two-seed and a first round bye in the District playoffs.” Pisani then added, “Our goal is to win the district championship.”

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