Deja Vu In Davie As Western Defeats Cypress Bay Again

Throw out the records, throw out the stats. When Western and Cypress Bay meet on the diamond, the gloves come off and out come the bats. In a big district meeting, where only seven miles separate two schools who are looking to win a district title, the Wildcats got the best of the Lightning for the second time this season.

Western wanted to solidify themselves in the district tournament for the first time in recent years, and none other better then against cross-town rival, Cypress Bay.

“Any win against them [Cypress Bay] is always big for us. It was double big tonight bouncing back from the tough loss Monday at Cooper. We just have to put something together in the districts so we can separate ourselves a little,” said Wildcats Manager Paul Barnes.

A Deja vu seventh inning had Wildcat fans holding their breathe as they watched Joseph Spano record his final three outs by way of strikeout. The Wildcats, for the second time in seven days, were able to hold off the heart of the Lighting’s order in their final at-bats and win 3-2.

For Western it was more then just a win. Not only did they stamp a spot in the postseason, but they swept the regular season from their off the field buddies. Senior Anthony Difabio had recently been in a slump but has been the guy for the Wildcats offense all year. As Difabio’s bat has been quiet as of late, his team was riding a small losing skid.

“Before this game I was struggling, and my coach always says think opposite field. I just kept getting outside fastballs tonight and drove them the other way,” said Difabio about both of his two-out doubles in the right-field gaps.

Wednesday night in front of a packed house, Difabio broke through and helped the Wildcats to their third district win. He went 2-for-2 with two doubles, two runs and was hit by a pitch.

“He’s been our guy all year, tonight he found the gaps. Although he may not be the fastest guy in the world, he placed the ball in the right spots to make it to second base,” Manager Barnes said about Difabio.

Alex Artaza received the last minute pitching decision for the Wildcats and gave them the strong start they were hoping for. In the first three innings, Artaza was painting the strike zone with his breaking ball and kept the Lightning hitters off balance the first time through the line-up.

The Wildcats did not waste anytime in jumping out to an early lead in the first. Difabio had his first hit of the night with a double up the middle on a ball that just missed the pitcher and rolled to the fence. He scored a batter later on a first and third situation that Cypress Bay mishandled.

In the home half of the third, it was like the first inning all over again. With two outs Difabio delivered another double, this time down the right-field line to start it off for Western. Jaime Del Hoyo fought through his next at-bat seeing 10 pitches and drawing a walk.

Carlos Rodriguez found the five hole of Cypress Bay short stop Danny Cepeda, scoring Difabio and Del Hoyo who was full throttle all the way from first base. The Lightning suddenly found themselves in a 3-0 hole after three innings of play.

Tommy Quintero pulled a ball down the first base line for a lead off double to get the Lightning’s fourth inning started. Artaza walked the next batter and was in trouble for the first time in the game. Devin Ramirez lined a ball back up the box and drove in the first run cutting the lead to 3-1.

Artaza struggled against the next three batters, and manager Barnes went to the pen. With two outs, bases loaded and now only a one-run lead, tempers started to flare. The intensity was high in both the players and coaches, and a minor disagreement occurred. After the situation calmed itself down, young Wildcat southpaw sophomore Joseph Spano used the hype as fuel to help put out the fire and preserve their one-run lead.

Spano threw 3.1 innings, struck out seven, and allowed no runs on one hit of relief for the Wildcats.

Cypress Bay (8-3, 3-2) Manager Michael White stressed to his team how they need to limiting the mistakes, and not give away runs if they want to win these kind of games.

“We can play better defense, we gave up unearned runs tonight. You can’t beat a good team giving up unearned runs. We didn’t make the plays on defense that we needed to, and that has kind of been a little bit of our letdown in close games,” said White, “We have to find a way to win these close games, we have a tough spring break tournament next week, and we need to get better. We face Cooper City (district leaders) the first Tuesday when we get back, so we just want to keep getting better. By the end of the season we will hopefully be playing our best ball when the district tournament starts.”

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