Cortez Leads Hialeah To 5-2 Game Of The Week Victory

Nestor Cortez has meant a lot to his Hialeah ballclub.

Saturday’s Game of the Week showdown with host Coral Gables was a great opportunity for the Thoroughbreds to reward their ace with the chance to start in the spotlight moment.

The senior left-hander in turn rewarded his team with a complete-game gem in leading Hialeah to a 5-2 victory over Coral Gables in the final Miami-Dade Game of the Week of the 2013 season, played at Woodward Field at Coral Gables High.

“They always have a good team, and it’s always well-coached. We had it tough, but we got the win,” Cortez said.

Cortez has been a starter with the squad since his freshman year, and now he is the guy who puts the team on his back and lets everybody feed off of him. But on Saturday he was quick to credit his team for lifting him up in the big moment.

“They found a way to hit the ball, so I had to do it on the mound,” Cortez said. “We’ve been waiting all season and we finally got this chance. We were supposed to play yesterday; then finally we got to play today.”

After waiting anxiously all season for their turn for the Game of the Week, both squads then had to wait one more day after the game was postponed on Friday because of bad weather.

Cavaliers Manager Phil Wisser admitted the move to Saturday may have helped create a better atmosphere, and certainly the weather was far better on this sunny and clear afternoon. But with these two teams, it is always a showstopper regardless of the conditions.

“We thank Coral Gables and High School Baseball Network for giving us an opportunity to play in a game like this, not only to benefit both programs with the coverage but as well where the proceeds are going with the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation,” Hialeah Manager Jonathan Hernandez said. “It’s a great team win overall. We did the little things, the fundamental stuff that we work on in practice, and it served us right today.”

Hialeah (15-5) ended Coral Gables’ season last year in the regional playoffs, and the two teams have held a nice rivalry over time.

In the latest installment, Nestor Cortez was simply too much to handle.

The lefty ace needed just 91 pitches to work seven full innings, scattering seven hits while allowing two earned runs as he improved to 3-3 on the year.

“He was obviously good. He was mixing up both pitches for strikes and he just did a great job,” Wisser said. “We had a game plan for him, and I’m a little upset because we did not follow it.”

The Cavaliers (12-8) had intended to attack the fastball early in the count and try to get a jump while also avoiding falling behind to the standout lefty.

But that plan was easier said than done.

Even though he had been itching to go, Cortez admitted the extra day of rest and preparation brought him onto the mound mentally prepared.

“The first three innings I didn’t have my best stuff, but my guys kept bringing me in and keeping me up,” Cortez said. “After the fourth inning, I just had it going. My change-up was good and then my curve ball was really dropping. Coach was calling inside pitches so I got to dominate with inside-pitches. I’m with him; wherever he calls it, I’m going to throw it there.”

He allowed just one walk, but it was one that the Cavaliers made him pay for.

Raymond Gonzalez drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first inning, and worked his way around the bases thanks to some fundamental baseball.

Gonzalez advanced to second base on a passed ball, then Elih Marrero ground out to shortstop Ryan “Coco” Montes to move him to third, and Alex Pinero drove him home for a 1-0 lead on a fielder’s choice groundout that was also hit to Montes.

But it was a lead that was short-lived, as the Thoroughbreds countered with some fundamental “station-to-station” baseball of their own to tie things up in the top of the second.

Catcher Jonathan Diaz lined a leadoff single to center field, gave way to courtesy runner Brian Gomez, and Gomez quickly advanced into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Robert Carmona.

Gilbert Maldonado singled past the diving Montes to put runners on the corners, and Alian Silva slapped a single into left field for the RBI that scored Gomez.

Diaz added an RBI bases-loaded walk in the third to give Hialeah a lead it would never lose, while chasing Cavaliers starter Orlando Rodriguez in the process.

“Orlando started out great, but he got out of synch,” Wisser admitted, while discussing the team’s only move to the bullpen after their starter gave them two innings.

Gables brought in right-hander Jose Padron, and the sophomore rescued the team by earning a strikeout on a called third strike before inducing a 6-4-3 double-play.

“Jose came in and pitched a phenomenal game,” Wisser said. “He’s only a sophomore, and we’re a very young team all around, but lately he’s been very good. He came in and held his own, got out of a huge jam for us with bases loaded and no outs. He did a good enough job to keep us in the ballgame and give us a chance. I’m really happy with him and really happy with his performance.”

Padron came into the game having only pitched 10 total innings on the season. But he pitched well enough on Saturday to stay on the hill for the final five innings, throwing 55 total pitches while taking the loss to fall to 0-1 on the year.

Padron allowed just three hits, and two of those were to Cortez.

“Cortez is our leadoff guy in the lineup, and we tell him ‘where you go, we go’,” Hernandez said. “I’m so excited to have a kid like that on my team.”

Leading off the top of the fifth Cortez lifted the first pitch he saw deep to left field for a double, and then courtesy-runner Michael Rodriguez scored on an infield throwing error.

Running for Cortez, Rodriguez scored three times on the day, as Cortez was 2-for-3 and also reached on a walk.

Meanwhile, on the mound he continued to shut down the Cavaliers, and his defense played error-free behind him.

After Pinero reached on a two-out single and then stole second to get into scoring position in the third, the shortstop Silva chased down a hopper that bounced over the mound in time to record the final out at first.

Montes singled leading off the fourth, and German Reyes followed suit on a dribbler up the middle that put runners on the corners.

But Reyes was then caught in a rundown, and Cortez got into a groove from there to strike out eight of the final ten batters he faced. He recorded 12 strikeouts on the day, raising his team-leading total to 63 on the year.

Gables staged one last rally attempt in the sixth when Pinero crushed a shot that fell just a few feet short of a home run to instead bounce off the left field wall for a standup, leadoff double.

Reyes then singled to left to bring Pinero home and pull the Cavaliers within 3-2.

But the Thoroughbreds stuck with their ace, and he escaped the jam with back-to-back strikeouts before his team lifted him up with two more insurance runs in the top of the seventh.

“His words were ‘you’re not taking me out of this game’,” Hernandez said. “But that’s Nestor; that’s what you ask for in a number one pitcher. He wants the ball; it doesn’t matter the situation. He’s not going to back down from anybody.”

The win also gives Hernandez the current bragging rights between the two managers, who are longtime friends whom enjoy the back-and-forth that has been created now that the former coaching partners are each at the helm of their respective alma mater schools.

But what matters most to Wisser is how well his team responded in the big moment, and the hope that perhaps these teams will meet again in the regional playoffs later this year.

“We know we can compete,” Wisser said. “We were facing one of the best pitchers in Dade County, a lefty who throws 88-91 and mixes in a great curveball for strikes when he wants. It’s a 3-2 ballgame going into the seventh; so we know we can compete, we can battle. It’s been great games with them the last three or four years and we hope to see them again.”

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