Cypress Bay Stuns Western With Walk-Off Victory
Jonathan Pino had two RBIs for the Lightning.
Dreams really do come true.
Cypress Bay sophomore Christian Nehls fulfilled every kid’s baseball dream on Tuesday. In the bottom of the seventh with two outs and two strikes on him, Nehls stroked a drive past everyone into left-center field and drove in the winning run to lift host Cypress Bay past Western 5-4, in a huge district meeting between the two longtime rivals, on a beautiful spring evening at Ron Bergeron Park in Weston.
With the score knotted at four, Western Manager Paul Barnes sent reliever Alex Pousa to the mound for the seventh inning. Sophomore Anthony Figueroa worked Pousa for a walk and Barnes signaled for hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, Anthony Gutierez.
Gutierrez surrendered a beautiful sacrifice bunt to Alex Abella that moved Figueroa to second, and stuck out the next batter to set the stage for his battle against Nehls. Gutierez got two quick strikes on Nehls, and Figueroa moved to third base on an unchallenged stolen base. After a pitch that was low and outside, Gutierez delivered a high fastball over the plate. Nehls took the pitch and blasted it into left-center field, and the celebration began.
“I am speechless,” proclaimed Cypress Bay Manager Paul Liotti. “You couldn’t have a better script. I have never seen a rivalry like this in high school. It is fun to be a part of as a coach, and these guys will have these stories for a long time. This is great for our team. We are the number one seed in the tournament and we are regular season champs. I am proud of these guys.”
The game between the rival squads began with a buzz in the air. This was a contest between the top two teams in District 8A-12. The winner would be the top seed in the upcoming District Tournament. The crowd was spirited on both sides and the dugouts were boisterous.
Western jumped out to a one-run lead in the first with back-to-back doubles by Brannigan Hart and David Flores. Cypress Bay answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. A clutch single by Jonathan Pino scored two Lightning runners to put the score at 3-1.
Western starting pitcher George Helbig threw five innings and had six strikeouts.
Cypress Bay (10-9, 7-1) seemed to be cruising along as starting pitcher Luis Sucre worked four straight scoreless innings. Cypress Bay lengthened its lead in the fourth to 4-1 using two base hits and a ground out to push across a run.
Pushed to the brink, Western (11-6, 5-3) awoke the crowd with its spirit in the dugout and its rally on the field. A walk to Flores coupled with a single by Gutierez brought junior third baseman Erik Lassman to the plate. Lassman sent a towering shot 340 feet over the left-center field wall for a three-run home run, tying the score at four runs each. The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh, setting the stage for Nehls.
“This is the best feeling in the world, so far,” Christian Nehls said about his heroics. “Hopefully there will be more to come. I was really nervous up there, but I saw the ball coming down the middle and I put a good piece of the bat on it.”
For the Lightning, Nick Orlando had two hits and scored a run, and Pino had two RBIs.
“This was a tough game,” stated winning pitcher Luis Sucre. “But this team always plays with a lot of heart and we did not give up.”
Flores went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Wildcats, and Anthony Urso also had two hits.
“Well, they’ve beaten us twice this year and it doesn’t feel good. Hopefully we get to see them again and give them a better played game,” Barnes expressed. “If we do, it will be for the district championship.”
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