Garcia’s Gem Propels Westwood To 2A Title-Game Rematch

When Danny Garcia pitches, he goes into his own zone and loses himself into the game.

Whenever the Westwood Christian ace gets into this zone, it is nearly impossible to hit off of him.

Such was the case on Wednesday afternoon, as Garcia pitched a 4-0 complete-game shutout to guide the Warriors past Cambridge Christian in a Class 2A state semifinal played at jetBlue Park in Fort Myers.

The victory sends Westwood Christian (16-7-1) back to the 2A state championship, setting up a rematch tonight with defending champion Trinity Christian-Deltona.

The Eagles (16-10) advanced with an 8-0 victory over Master’s Academy in the other 2A semifinal played Wednesday morning.

Last year, the Warriors came out on the wrong end of a tough 1-0 decision to the Eagles in the title game that also saw Garcia start and go the distance.

“Once I threw that first pitch, I felt like that game was yesterday,” Garcia said. “When we got that first out, I got into a groove. It’s just me and my catcher, Claudio Rubiera. We are best friends, and we zone out together. He calls the game, and I am blessed to have him as my catcher. I just thank God that all of my pitches worked again.”

Featuring an impressive array of two-seam and four-seam fastballs, splitters and curve balls, Garcia limited the Lancers (19-10) to four hits while not issuing any walks. The lefty struck out 12 hitters in all, culminating with a swinging strikeout to Elias Rivera to end the game.

Of his 92 pitches thrown, 74 found the strike zone as Garcia attacked the Lancers lineup with ferocity. This led to great pitch efficiency, as the lefty never threw more than 15 pitches in any frame.

Although Garcia has been limited to an 85-pitch limit for much of the season, on Wednesday Westwood Manager Luis Padron let him know he had the green light to go the distance.

“I saw he was on today, and I saw the movement on the ball,” Padron said. “My catcher Claudio Rubiera told me he was on, so we knew it early on. Not only is he talented, but Danny is gutsy and he wants the ball. I have never seen anybody who wants the ball more than this kid. We didn’t score much runs behind Danny this year, and he had some tough breaks there.”

On Wednesday that was again the case, as the Warriors offense managed just three hits on the day.

The team scored all the runs it would ultimately need in the bottom of the first inning, as several Lancers miscues dug them into an early hole they would never recover from.

Anthony Gonzalez lined a one-out single past third base and then advanced when Luis Diaz reached on an infield error. Two hitters later Miguel Gonzalez sent both runners across the plate after he also reached on an infield error that put Westwood up 2-0.

Diaz again reached on an error in his second at-bat in the bottom of the third inning, and Gonzalez followed by rolling the first pitch he saw up the middle for a single. Both runners then executed a double-steal to get into scoring position, before Diaz was able to come home on a wild pitch to push the lead to 3-0.

Westwood was incredibly aggressive on the base paths, swiping nine bases in all on 11 attempts. But Padron insisted that had not been the team’s plan going into the contest.

“I have a game plan and I try not to go away from that, but today was the first time that we did because the kids saw something,” Padron explained. “They saw things with the catcher and they gave me the signs and let me tell them yea or nay to go. We saw the catcher was kind of long, and that was why we ran.”

Danny Fernandez was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jose Suarez, and then he swiped his second bag of the day to set himself 90 feet from home.

Two batters later, Fernandez crossed the plate on a passed ball for the Warriors’ final run.

The team now finds itself again knocking on the door for the school’s first state title, while also setting itself up for a storybook ending in earning a second shot at the team that defeated them a year ago in the same circumstances.

“I came in early today and saw the Trinity coach, and he told me he would see us tomorrow,” said Padron. “We have kind of become friendly now, and when we won today, I looked up to the stands and he signaled to me that we have one more to go.”

Coming back to states this year, Padron noted how focused his players are, and how their approach all season has helped them to get back to this point.

“I call them the happy-go-lucky kids. Their focus is there and they buy into what I teach them,” Padron said. “We’re blessed with talent and they know how to play the game. Our focus since day one was to get back to states. Now we’re here. We love it and we love the game. The kids went to bed early last night, because there is no celebration yet. We’ve got a job to do. This is life, and I told them to take this like it’s the next step in your life and let’s do it right.”

With Garcia now unavailable and rendered essentially to the role of cheerleader and dugout motivator, the Warriors will turn to senior Jason Gutierrez to make the start tonight.

Gutierrez threw a complete-game shutout against Zion Lutheran in his last start, and the senior right-hander is focused on eating right and getting plenty of rest as he prepares for his biggest start of the season Thursday night.

Fellow senior righty Oscar Rivera and junior left-hander Ruben Quesada will also likely see action in the championship, as the team prepares to do whatever it must in order to earn that coveted state trophy.

“It’s an important game for us, the biggest game of our lives,” said Rivera. “For Jason and I, it’s our final game in high school. It’s mostly preparing on the mental side, feeling right today and getting a good night’s rest so tomorrow we wake up with a positive attitude.”

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