Chaminade-Madonna Reaches 4A-14 Championship

Mike Nader picked a great time to claim his first varsity win.

The Chaminade-Madonna right-hander threw six innings of shutout relief and the Lions’ offense came through with some clutch hits Wednesday night as they defeated Somerset 5-4 in their 4A-14 semifinal contest at Ian Besner Field at Nova Southeastern University.

“Mike stabilized us and started throwing strikes,” said Lions Manager Mike Moss, whose team was down 4-1 when Nader was called upon with no outs in the second. “When Mike throws strikes, his ball moves a lot; they had a hard time hitting him today. After his first inning, I saw him keeping the ball down and he wasn’t missing by much. I had a feeling he was on. He threw a great bullpen yesterday.”

Nader gave up just two hits and struck out five, working around three walks. Things got a little hairy in the top of the seventh when, with one out and one on, Somerset cleanup hitter Mike Van Degna ripped a line drive. Luckily it was right at second baseman Jose Colina, who caught the ball and threw to first for a game-ending double play.

“I was scared to death it was going to get through,” said Nader, who had his breaking balls working all evening. “When I saw Jose catch it and the kid off the bag, I jumped in the air and wanted to cry and let all my emotions out.”

His heart may have skipped a beat when Van Degna’s liner came off the bat in the seventh, but the Lions would survive to fight another day by playing the district’s top seed North Broward Prep for the district title on Thursday. The Eagles also advanced after beating Pine Crest Wednesday night.

It didn’t look like pitching was going to be the story of the night early in the contest when both starters struggled to find the strike zone. Lions starter Damien Fornash gave up three runs in the first, although only one was earned. Christian Khawly reached on a high chopper before scoring on a bases-loaded walk to Kenny Moreno-Costa. A John Ham bloop single then scored Juan Teixeira, before Van Degna crossed the plate on a Carlos Cartaya sac-fly.

Despite being handed a nice early lead, Panthers starter Anthony Molina also had some troubles throwing strikes and was replaced very soon into the game. Reliever P.J. Ximinies got his team out of the inning with the only run coming on on a sac-fly by Juan Martinez.

After Fornash was removed in the second, the Panthers (13-12) tacked on another run when Christian Khawly’s seeing-eye single off Nader sneaked through the right side to score courtesy runner Mark Bejar. But then it was time for Nader to clamp down.

He retired 11 of the next 13 batters and didn’t give up his second hit until the sixth inning, by which point his teammates had managed to put the Lions into the lead.

The first two runs came in the third inning. Shane Stockelman smashed a single right back at Ximenies, who barely managed to get a glove on the ball and save it from potentially hitting him in the head. Colina then cracked a double into the left-field corner, moving Stockelman to third. Stockelman scored on a Mike Ramunno groundout, and then Colina crossed on an RBI single over second base by Nick Izquierdo, which made it a one-run game.

A pitching change didn’t derail the Chaminade comeback, as the Lions (11-15) got the tying and go-ahead runs in the fourth. Colina contributed in a big way again, as his single up the middle with one out scored both Daniel Vitello and Alex Smith.

Yori Rodriguez singled and stole second base with no outs in the sixth to give Somerset their best chance of tying things up. But Nader buckled down and got a strikeout, a fly ball and a groundout to escape the inning with his team’s lead still intact.

“We’ve been getting some rhythm over the last two weeks,” said Moss, who indicated he will start lanky freshman right-hander Brendan Tuttle in the championship. “We’re still getting better, so that’s a good place to be this time of year.”

As for Panthers Manager Onel Garcia, he was left ruing missed chances and the travails of having such a young squad.

“They got the key hits and we didn’t. Just came down to the wire,” Garcia said. “We start six sophomores and just need to get more consistent. Hopefully the team got a valuable experience from this and will benefit from it next year. I’m very proud of them.”

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