Westwood Christian Gets Past Ronald Reagan Despite Sloppy Defense

The Westwood Christian Warriors got off to a rocky start Monday afternoon but were able to overcome their mistakes with key performances from Danny Garcia on the mound and Alex Hernandez at the plate to beat the Ronald Reagan Bison 8-3.

Reagan took advantage of a number of defensive mishaps from Westwood Christian in the first inning that continued the rest of the game to give the Bison opportunities to keep scoring.

Reagan’s Raul Cortes was the first to come around to score after a throwing error to first base on a routine ground ball. Cortes reached base earlier in the inning with a nice double down the left-field line. Joe Diaz blasted a ball over the center fielder’s head for an RBI double and advanced to third on another throwing error. The mistakes continued as Sergio Santana hit a high fly ball to left field that was dropped by the Warriors outfielder and allowed for the third run of the inning to come across.

“The errors were all made by seniors today,” Westwood Christian head coach Luis Padron said. “They just got back from their class trip and haven’t been able to practice in two weeks, so they were a little off today.”

The Warriors battled right back and scored three quick runs of their own to tie the game right back up. Jose Suarez got things going with a two-run home run. Then a couple batters later, Alex Hernandez hit a home run of his own to tie the game.

“It felt great to help the team out and get us back in the game,” Hernandez said. “I think it was a real confidence booster and something we really needed since we were losing and weren’t playing great early.”

Westwood Christian then took the lead in the second inning when J.C. Cardenas hit his second single of the game to drive in Lazaro Martinez. Then it was a Reagan error that allowed for Ariel Bello to score after an error by the third baseman. The Warriors took the 5-3 lead and never looked back.

Westwood’s starting pitcher Danny Garcia had a rough first inning because of a few errors with two outs extended the inning. Nonetheless, he was able to brush it off and hold off the Bison in his five innings of work. Garcia struck out a total of 10 batters and was able to get out of a few innings with a couple of men left on base.

“Danny started a little slow after not throwing in a while,” coach Padron mentioned. “But he came back and had 10 strikeouts and was great again.”

Ronald Reagan was able to get on base every inning, but was unable to capitalize on the Warriors mistakes. The Bison found themselves leaving at least two men on base four times throughout the game.

“We are young and have a couple guys hurt and these guys haven’t been put in these situations enough,” Ronald Reagan head coach Jessy Rodriguez said. “We didn’t capitalize against a good ball club and that’s something that will kill you against a good team.”

The Warriors did not stay complacent with a two-run lead. In the sixth inning, Robert Hernandez showed great base-running after reaching on a walk, stealing second and scoring on a wild pitch. Hernandez then hit a bomb over the left-field fence for a two-run home run to give his team a more comfortable lead and make the game 8-3.

“I tell these kids its all about character,” Padron said. “Its not about how we start, but more important how we finish and the seniors stepped up and got us back in it.”

Hernandez also came in to pitch for the Warriors in the top of the sixth. He forced the Bison into three groundouts and closed out the game in the seventh by striking out all three batters looking.

The Ronald Reagan Bison look forward to their next few games to get things going and get ready for the district tournament in a few weeks.

“Our schedule the next two weeks is tough and hopefully it gets us ready for districts coming up,” coach Rodriguez said. “We will find the guys that are ready to play and want to be out there come districts.”

Westwood Christian hopes that the bats continue to stay hot and they’re able to get the defensive mistakes down as it will be a high seed in its district tournament. But first, the Warriors take on Dade Christian on Thursday afternoon.

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