Southwest Scores In The Ninth To Beat Columbus

Columbus entered Wednesday night’s 8A-15 district semifinals as the number one seed with home-field advantage, and as the consensuses number one team.

The Explorers had only lost two district games all season, and defeated the Southwest Eagles twice by a margin of eight runs.

Yet, we still play the game.

Southwest forced extra innings, where senior Gaby Casals struck the biggest hit of his career in the ninth inning in sending home the winning run to give Southwest the 4-3 victory.

The Eagles (14-9) were unable to snub a run through six innings, and fell behind by three early. But Southwest Miami never gave up and rallied in the seventh to tie the game at 3-3.  

“It’s been a tough year for us, we’ve been up and down, so this feels good,” said Eagles Manager Josy Torres. “We hung tough and there was something about these guys today that they had it in them, they never felt like they were out of it, even down three we just put the ball in play and made things happen.”

The Eagles were held in check for most of the game by the Explorers defense and Columbus ace Brian Garcia. Garcia struck out eight batters, allowed just four hits and did not give up a run. The Explorers (19-6) sat down the first nine batters they faced.

Alex Perera pitched a complete game for the Eagles, recording five K’s and allowed just five hits.

The Explorers attacked early with a single by Laz Rivera in the first inning. Cris Perez followed with a single to left field, but Perera and the Eagles defense forced a fly-out to get out of the inning.

Columbus took advantage of a mistake by the Eagles in the fourth inning.

A Perez grounder was mishandled putting him on first base. Perera responded with a strikeout, and the Eagles then decided to intentionally walk Ryan Alvarez.

Chris Garabedian then struck a grounder that was again mishandled, loading the bases for the Explorers. Eddie Rodriquez hit a ground-out, but was able to bring in Perez for the first run of the game on the fielder’s choice.

The Explorers continued to score in the fifth inning. Kevin Suarez was walked to lead off, but the Eagles regrouped and forced two quick outs and it seemed Columbus would leave Suarez stranded.

The Eagles decided to walk Perez, and Danny Diaz followed and walked to load the bases for Alvarez.  Alvarez struck a single to center field, bringing in two runs.

The Eagles entered the seventh inning down 3-0 with the season on the line. But Carlos Pena made it safely to first off a tricky grounder, and Chris Mourelle then struck a single to center field.

Perera belted a shot deep to center field, falling just shy of the wall, and bouncing off the glove of the defender, bringing in Pena and Mourelle for the Eagles’ first runs of the day.

Garcia and the Explorers then recorded two quick outs and it seemed they would sneak out of the nail biter. With two out in hand Gaby Casals fell behind on the count at the plate and the Explorers were one strike away from a victory. Casals popped up an infield fly ball, however the fly-ball wasn’t controlled and found the ground, bringing in the tying run.

The Eagles remained alive and forced extra innings.

In the ninth inning Luis Aviles was walked on four pitches, Perera held his bat and found the base on four balls. but the Explorers forced two quick outs, and again Casals stepped to the plate with two outs, Casals then cranked a shot to left field bringing in Aviles for the game winning run.

“I just did the same thing I always do when I practice, looking for off speed pitches and waiting on the sliders,” Casals said. “No matter what the score was we were never going to give up, we don’t quit and we stay together helping each other out.”

Eagles Manager Josy Torres expressed his confidence in Casals.

“Casals hasn’t had many at-bats this season, but he’s a senior that we trust, and he’s been looking great at practice,” said Torres. “I decided to start him today because I knew he could come up big for us if we needed him to.”

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