Late Rally Pushes Western Past Cypress Bay

Brannigan Hart may be one of the youngest players on the Western roster, but he has quickly made a name for himself this season.

On Wednesday night Hart etched his name into Wildcats lore by delivering the winning hit to lift his club past district rival Cypress Bay.

With Diego Acosta on second base in a scoreless contest, Hart lined a double to left-center field to drive home the winning run in the top of the seventh inning. Western held off one final rally attempt to preserve their slim lead and escape with a big 3-0 victory.

In a long and storied rivalry between these two clubs, it was a victory that helped to erase the memory of the Wildcats’ last contest played at Cypress Bay, when the Lightning walked them off to open the 2013 season. The victory also puts Western (4-5) at 2-1 in District 8A-12, putting them in a three-way tie for first place with both Cypress Bay (6-2) and Cooper City.

“Sticking with their confidence was most important from our guys tonight,” said Western Manager Paul Barnes. “We were on the wrong end of a game like this last week, so we know how it feels. Our defense was solid and so was our pitching, so it gave us a great chance to win tonight. In this district it’s going to be all about who gets hot at the end. No one is really out there smashing 15-20 runs a game, so pitching and defense will be the most important.”

After throwing a scoreless sixth inning of relief, Tommy Quintero came out in the seventh to face Western’s nine-hole hitter, Diego Acosta. Acosta reached on an error, and senior Chris Baetzel laid down a flawless sacrifice bunt to move Acosta over into scoring position and bring Hart to the plate. 

Anthony Difabio and David Flores both kept the inning going, reaching on errors to plate two more runs and give the Wildcats a larger cushion.

Good pitching is what wins baseball games; both of these ball clubs preach it, and both exercised it Wednesday. Though faced with adversity, both pitchers remained poised and pounded the strike zone all night.

There’s nothing quite like having your starting pitcher go deep into ball games, and that’s just what Western starter Trent Massaro did Wednesday, hurling six-and-a-third innings.

His opponent, Alex Rodriguez, threw five scoreless innings as well, but was pulled after that. From the first innings, Western was hitting the ball hard to all fields, but could not string an adequate amount of hits together as Rodriguez got out of jams and left runner after runner on base.

Cypress Bay also threatened in the first with runners on second and third, but a ground out left the runners stranded.

“Trying to get each out is so important for me. I adjust to the hitters and what they do at the plate,” said Trent Massaro of his approach on Wednesday.

In the bottom of the second, Massaro settled in and got into a groove. Massaro saw only four batters each of the next three innings, keeping his pitch count low, and his defense off the field.

“We have so much confidence in Trent,” Barnes said. “When he’s on the mound, the kids take it to another level. He hasn’t had a bad inning for us all season, and he’s been huge for us. He’s a competitor and he’s our ace.”

A leadoff hit in the second had Western threatening to score for the first time of the night. But once again Rodriguez kept the threat at bay by retiring the next three batters in order. The Wildcats threatened again in the third inning with a single by Baetzel and walk to Difabio. But once again Rodriguez worked out of the inning by recording a big strikeout with runners on first and third.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth innings were quick and saw only five hits total from both sides. Western got a single from Anthony Gutierez in the fourth, Baetzel in the fifth and Chris Cata in the sixth. A single by Alex Valladares and a double by Juan De La Espriella were the only hits for Cypress through that same stretch of innings. All were left stranded as their teams failed to string hits together on lights out pitching from both sides.

Even after falling behind late and watching all the momentum swing into the road dugout, the Lightning did not go down without a fight with their final swings. One-out infield singles by Raul Quintero and Danny Cepeda, followed by a line-drive single to left by Devin Ramirez had the bases loaded. But Western held out, worked out of the jam and walked away with their second district victory.

“We’ve got West Broward tomorrow night so we have to forgot about tonight, wake up in the morning and try to find a way to win tomorrow night,” said Cypress Bay Manager Michael White.

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