Western Avenges Earlier Loss To Cypress Bay

The Western Wildcats entered Tuesday’s district showdown with rival Cypress Bay coming off of their best game of the season this past Friday.

But after the hosts downed the Lightning 6-2 with a solid overall performance, Wildcats Manager Paul Barnes had to admit that his team had just played their best game of the season yet again.

After a rough start to the year that included some tough, close losses, as well as the loss of several key players to injuries, the Wildcats (5-6) have bounced back to win four of their past five games.

“Last Friday’s game got them started, and we just built on it today,” said Barnes. “The coaching staff has been phenomenal and the players have gotten into a rhythm now. Hopefully we can keep building on it and see where it will take us.”

Western improves to 2-4 in District 8A-12 to pull within a game of the Lightning (6-3), who fell to 3-3 in the district.

“There are six teams in our district and right now five are battling for four spots,” Cypress Bay Manager Michael White said. “This just wasn’t our game tonight. We’ve gotta be ready to play every district game.”

The Lightning entered the contest having relied upon a stout defense and a strong pitching staff, but on Tuesday night the defense did not execute like usual.

“That wasn’t our style of play tonight,” White admitted. “We just didn’t make any plays on defense. We made some mistakes to beat ourselves. It’s the first time all year we’ve been let down by our defense.”

Cypress Bay had won the past two in the rivalry, including a walk-off 7-6 victory in extra innings earlier this season.

“Everyone was fired up knowing we had to win this game just to get into the playoffs,” Western starter Alex Artaza said, while reflecting on the way the team has bounced back from their struggles earlier this season. “Everyone stayed positive and now everyone is getting up. Our bats are coming alive and it’s really good.”

Making his first start of the season, Artaza pitched four solid innings to surpass the three innings of work he had on the year coming into the contest. Working with a nice mixture of fastballs and curveballs, the junior earned his first career victory to improve to 1-0 this season.

“My teammates supported me the entire time,” Artaza said. “I felt good in the bullpen warming up and everything was just working today. It was a good day.”

The Lightning jumped out to an early lead in the top of the second, as starting pitcher Tommy Quintero set things off and helped his own cause by bouncing a leadoff single through the right side against a defense that was properly shifted against the left-handed hitter.

Quintero gave way to courtesy-runner Isaac Perez, who quickly found himself on third base after Juan De La Espriella was hit by a pitch and then Diego Maceda laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners.

Jacob Ehrlich then grounded into a fielder’s choice that erased De La Espriella at third while allowing Perez to score and put Cypress Bay up 1-0.

But it was a lead that was short-lived, as Western answered back with a four-run rally in the second inning to take a lead it would not relinquish.

Third baseman Anthony Difabio lined the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the second inning back up the middle for a leadoff single. After Quintero responded with back-to-back swinging strikeouts to nearly escape the jam, he quickly found himself in trouble when he walked Alex Villanueva and then hit Tyler Fichter with a pitch to load the bases.

Shortstop Mac Hessney made him pay by lining an RBI single up the middle that brought Difabio in to even the tally at one apiece.

Ryan Gabriel then reached with an RBI single on a check-swing that sent the ball slowly rolling down the first baseline to allow Gabriel to reach base and bring Villanueva home for the lead when the ball slipped out of the fielder’s glove on the tag.

Western added a pair of unearned runs on a passed ball and a wild pitch to extend the lead and give Artaza a three-run cushion.

“Knowing we had a three-run lead made it a lot easier,” Artaza admitted. “I didn’t have to do too much and I could just throw and let my defense make plays behind me.”

Artaza continued to pound the zone, recording a quick 1-2-3 inning in the third before handing a 5-2 lead off to reliever Tyler Van Nostrand following the fourth.

Van Nostrand pitched three scoreless innings to earn the nine-out save, his first of the season.

Yet even despite the results on the mound, another major key to the Wildcats’ victory was its strong approach at the plate. The Wildcats hitters were patient, working the starter Quintero for 79 pitches in only three innings of work.

It was the shortstop Hessney who helped set that tone with a single in the first inning in which he completed a nice at-bat by sitting back on an off-speed pitch before slapping a hit up the middle.

“His first at-bat he squeaked one through, then he roped one later,” Barnes said of Hessney, who went 2-for-4 on the night. “We’re getting better rhythm offensively. We didn’t chase pitches out of the zone, we attacked good pitches in the zone, and we stayed back and used the whole field.”

Despite only allowing one earned run, Quintero took the loss to fall to 1-3 on the season. The junior allowed six hits and two walks, while striking out four.

“We’ve been pitching very well; that’s been our strong point,” White said. “We made some mistakes to beat ourselves tonight. No loss is good, but we can play better. We’ve done it. We’ve played much better than this so that’s what we’ve got to come back and do.”

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