Taravella Holds Off Late Cypress Bay Rally

Taravella worked its way through the end of the season and into the district tournament buoyed by its offense, but Thursday night against Cypress Bay, those hot bats were held in check a bit before the Trojans found just enough offense to win 2-0.

The Trojans advance to play district rival Douglas in a regional semifinal on Tuesday.

Cypress Bay starter Alex Rodriguez breezed through through the Trojans’ top of the order, working a 1-2-3 first inning. Taravella worked counts early and kept Rodriguez’s pitch count up. Cypress bay came up in the bottom of the inning boasting a 10-3 record at home this year. A leadoff infield hit by shortstop Danny Cepeda got things going for the Lightning, but Taravella starter and senior Chris Virardi stranded him retiring the next three in a row.

After Rodriguez came out and struck out the first batter, Taravella’s big bat, Gavin Robinson stepped in. He fouled off five consecutive pitches until he found the pitch he was looking and drove it to left for a base hit. The next two batters flew out and up came the heart of the Cypress Bay lineup. After Virardi came out and got three straight Cypress hitters to ground out on six total pitches, the pitchers’ duel was on.

Rodriguez answered back in the third, quickly fanning the leadoff man and getting the nine-hole hitter to fly out. Up came the top of the Trojan order and senior Joseph Libio pulled a sharp liner into left for a base hit. He stole second but Rodriguez struck out the next batter and stranded him to send things into the fourth scoreless. Cypress again had its bats silenced by Virardi.

Taravella’s Julio Bautista led things off for the Trojan’s in the fourth with a walk. The Trojans put runners on early, but Alex Rodriguez had an answer for each of them. He struck out the next batter, got the following one to pop up and struck out the last Cypress hitter for the third out.

Virardi, who led his district with a 0.59 ERA, worked efficiently in the fourth, retiring Cypress hitters 1-2-3, his second of three innings of doing so.

“Chris last year and the year before, you know he’s going to throw strikes and keep you in the game for 5-6 innings,” said Taravella Manager Alan Clark. “The last couple of games his been the front line guy and he’s stepped up.”

In both starts, he allowed just three base runners each through the first four innings.

Rodriguez faced the bottom of the Taravella order and again let his defense work behind him as the Trojans went three up, three down.

Cypress threatened in the bottom of the fifth, starting with a leadoff bast hit to left from Raul Quintero.The next batter, Nick Orlando, followed Quintero’s lead driving a ball to right putting two on with no outs for the Lightning. A passed ball advanced the runners and up came Joey Rodriguez, who drove a fly ball to left. Tagging at third was Quintero, who was thrown out at home on a bang-bang double-play by left-fielder Manny Pantaleon.

With a runner on second, Taravella intentionally walked lead-off hitter Danny Cepeda. The next batter, Jose Natera, walked and the bases were loaded with two outs. Virardi worked three-hole hitter Tommy Quintero into a 2-2 count before Quintero flew out to center, ending the Cypress rally and leaving the game scoreless going into the sixth.

“I know these guys can hit the ball. I came out just trying to throw strikes and work ahead in counts,” said Virardi. “My off-speed stuff was working today and I was spotting the ball real well and working the corners. I just wanted to put my team in a position to win and they came out and scored runs for us.”

Taravella’s top of the lineup was coming up, and the dugout was loud and optimistic. Rodriguez quickly retired the first two hitters on fly balls to right. Senior catcher Julio Bautista drove the first pitch he saw for a double. The next batter, Manny Pantaleon walked and set the stage for Gavin Robinson, who drove a 1-0 pitch to left for an RBI single, driving in Bautista and putting the Trojans up 1-0.

“I was looking fastball and adjusting to the curveball and he hung a curveball and I was able to drive it back up the middle,” said Robinson. “That hit meant a lot to me. I’m a junior and we’re going to be losing a lot of these guys next year, so to come through and keep things going for us was great.”

The Taravella dugout erupted as the next hitter, Bravo, saw a passed ball score the second Trojan run before he flew out to center to end the inning. That would be all for Virardi’s night as big right-hanger Justin Walker took the mound for the Trojans in the bottom of the sixth. He blew fastball after fastball by Cypress hitters striking out the side, holding the 2-0 lead into the seventh.

On came Luis Sucre to pitch for the Lightning as Alex Rodriguez was done after six innings of work. Taravella reached their lead-off man Nik Sanders on an error and he was quickly bunted over by Zach Costanzo. Taravella threatened again, but Sucre struck out the next hitter and got the lead-off man to pop out for the third out.

Cypress came out with just three outs to work with. Raul Quintero walked to start off the inning, but Walker struck the next batter out on three pitches and got the following to pop up to the catcher. Cypress was down to one out. Danny Cepeda worked an impressive at-bat, fouling a 3-2 pitch off before he walked. Walker walked the next batter, Jose Natera, and the winning run was now on. Up stepped Tommy Quintero, his brother standing on third. He hit a sharp line drive that one-hopped to a diving Sanders at first base. Sanders knocked the ball down, bobbled it, but was able to flip it to Walker who was hustling from the pitchers mound to cover the base, just beating the runner and securing the victory for the Trojans.

Cypress who’s impressive 17-7 season had been shut out for the third time this season. They look to build on a young core of five starting sophomores next season.

“We had six sophomores and nine seniors this year and the guys came together great all year,” said Cypress Manager Michael White. “We played our best ball at the tail end of the season and tonight we had our chances and we just didn’t get that one break. We know Taravella is a good team, they pitched well and played great defense and catching a break was the key to the game. We’ve got a solid core of sophomores returning next year and our goal is to be right back here next year.”

The Trojans played as solid as they could have, and Manager Alan Clark was pleased with the win.

“We played seven innings,” said Clark. “Early and midway through the year we may not have played all seven innings, and we let the situation take control, but tonight we played a solid seven innings.”

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