Westwood Blanks Zion, Earns Return Trip To State

It was a good pitch to hit.

Danny Fernandez likes to hit fastballs, and when he got one on Friday afternoon he jumped on it for his biggest hit of the season.

The right fielder lifted a high inside fastball deep over the left field fence for a three-run home to break open a tight contest, and the Warriors never looked back.

Westwood Christian had back-to-back five-run innings to pull away for an 11-0 victory over host Zion Lutheran in a Class 2A regional final held Friday afternoon at Zion Lutheran High in Deerfield Beach.

“They’re a bunch of happy-go-lucky kids and they just buy into what we’ve been teaching them,” Westwood Manager Luis Padron said. “We say all year, ninety feet at a time, one out at a time, one pitch at a time. That’s how we do it. It was a close game at the beginning, and Danny Fernandez was wonderful today with that big home run.”

The Warriors (15-7-1) earn their second straight trip to the state tournament, after falling just short of a championship a season ago. The team will take on Cambridge on Wednesday afternoon at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers in an FHSAA state semifinal.

“Good things happen when you look for good pitches,” said Fernandez. “I was just thinking to stay back and look for my pitch – the fastball. I got it. This is a great feeling, and this is what we’ve been working for.”

Westwood was clinging to a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, with the host Lions (13-10) knocking at the door in response by putting runners on to threaten in each of the first three innings.

“When you get to the playoffs, its how you approach it and how confident you are,” Zion Manager Mike Dobre said. “The kids had a positive outlook the whole game. The ball just didn’t happen to bounce the right way, and that’s going to happen sometimes. That’s baseball.”

The Warriors had also had their share of trouble in getting the right bounces, as the team stranded a runner in each of the first three innings.

But after Claudio Rubiera was hit by a pitch and Luis Padron singled and was replaced on the bases by Javy Castaneda to bring up Fernandez, the junior connected for the hit that would awaken the entire offense.

“He’s a kid who gets down on himself, but I told him that he’s going to come up big today,” said Padron. “He’s a good fastball hitter and I’m glad he got that home run.”

Awakened by the excitement of that hit, the Warriors’ offense began to catch fire.

Robert Hernandez had a bunt single and Anthony Gonzalez singled to extend the inning, while bringing Hernandez all the way around on the play after the ball got away from the fielder.

Luis Diaz then connected for a double on a shot deep to center field that made it 6-0 as Gonzalez crossed the plate.

“We were all excited since the first inning, so once I got that big hit everybody got crazy,” Fernandez said. “Hitting is contagious; it just comes around. One to nine we all have our jobs to do, and everybody has to do that in order to get us where we need to go, and that is to states.”

Fernandez finished 2-for-3 with a double, while Hernandez went 2-for-3 with a double and three runs. Diaz was 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs.

Westwood would bat around the order in the fifth inning to pull away and close out the contest in five innings on the mercy rule.

“Our whole goal this year was to get to states,” said Dobre. “We came up shot by one game, but we played so hard to get to this point. It’s only the second time in school history that we made it to the regional finals. We’re still young and now they know how to win. It’s tough to lose like that, but I told them to keep their heads up because they played hard and I’m proud of them.”

Jason Gutierrez picked up the victory for the Warriors, after pitching into the third inning and managing to work his way out of a few jams each frame.

Right-hander Andy Rivera then closed the game out to earn his third save of the season, allowing a pair of singles to Nick Vazquez and Manny Rojas while picking up two strikeouts over two and two-third innings of work.

After falling 1-0 in an epic pitcher’s duel in the 2012 Class 2A championship, the Warriors are eager for a chance to return and settle the score.

But just as he has throughout the year, as well as during the team’s win on Friday, the Warriors manager has reminded his players to stay humble and save the celebrations until the very end.

“God is great and I know my dad is looking down on us,” said Padron. “I tell the kids that if you buy into what I teach, nobody does it better. We just love the game and they bought into it year round. In 53 years never to have a team from the school go to states, and now we go twice in two years, Westwood should be proud.”

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