Mourning’s Matt Castrorao Shuts Out Westland Hialeah

Photo Galery

Matt Castrorao loves and lives by his fastball. Now that he has other pitches in his arsenal the right-hander is becoming very tough to hit. The senior is an imposing and emotional hurler, who establishes his presence and attacks the zone with gusto.

On Friday night Castrorao found the perfect funnel for his intense passion. Putting together his most successful career outing, he led Mourning to a 2-0 victory over Westland Hialeah in the HSBN Miami-Dade Game of the Week played at Pepper Park in North Miami.

Castrorao went the distance for the complete-game shutout victory, his first win of this early season. The right-hander recorded 13 strikeouts, a walk and two hits, pounding 60 of his 93 pitches in the zone for strikes.

“This is the biggest victory of the program,” said Sharks Manager Edwin Bonilla. “They are finally going to buy in and believe that there is a momentum going forward. Matthew has always had it in him, and today he finally had his best performance of this program, and probably of his life. It will just help him get better going on. It was great for momentum for him and for the team.”

Castrorao has a very menacing fastball, and early on he mixed locations and zipped it by many batters. As the game wore on, he was crafty in his pitch selection, working backwards, forwards and however else to unleash several different pitches and make the batters guess what was coming.

“My fastball is my major pitch and that’s the one I love to go to,” said Castrorao. “My curveball and my changeup, I’m starting to get those working and throwing different ways to make them think, and its working. This feels great. We work night and day, Saturday up at nine o’clock working, working til late at night and then getting home. It’s nice that it is finally paying off.”

Not to be lost on the night was the performance of Ogandys Diaz for the Wildcats (2-4). The freshman also went the distance in the loss, putting in a strong performance behind a devastating slider and the ability to work ahead in the count.

“Our pitcher threw a great game,” said Westland Manager Jose Alvarez. “He’s a young guy and he’s really playing organized baseball for the first time. I think he threw a gem. We’re looking for a number two and he’s probably going to be our number two. He did a great job for us.”

Diaz hails from Cuba, but he had never pitched prior to this season. He always had aspirations to pitch someday, and the chance to go the distance and keep his club in the contest was something that meant a lot to him.

“I’m very happy from the first start to now to throw a complete game, and I’m very happy with my performance,” said Diaz. “I try to do the best I can for my team and for myself, and I try to stay relaxed so I can throw a pitch wherever I want. Being a freshman and my first time playing, I am very proud and very happy to be able to be the team’s number two. I’m ecstatic to be able to do that.”

Diaz was also effective at pounding the strike zone, hitting that mark with 58 of his 84 total pitches. The right-hander picked up three strikeouts and surrendered four hits, a walk and a hit batsman. The Sharks batters did not square up on a pitch until the sixth, when Andrew Feldman connected cleanly to rifle an RBI single up the middle that scored Brandon Rios for an insurance run.

Mourning improved to 2-3 on the season, and although it was a non-district contest it was a game that the Sharks had extra desire to win. The two clubs formally were in a district last season, and the Wildcats won both meetings a year ago.

“Last year, the first game got out of hand a bit. The second game we actually had the lead and they walked us off,” Bonilla recalled. “It was an emotional loss, a real bad loss. That loss right there actually officially eliminated us from the playoffs. But today was a big victory. It was a non-district game, but it was a big win to get us going for Goleman on Wednesday.”

Mourning tallied the winning run in the bottom of the first, as leadoff man Jose Reyes was hit by a pitch, stole second and then advanced to third on a passed ball to get into prime scoring position. Senior Nicolas Zambrano had battled through a nice at bat in the two-hole, but he changed his approach as he watched Reyes make it from first to third during that time. Zambrano connected on a 3-1 pitch and drove it deep to centerfield for the sacrifice-fly RBI, his team-leading fifth RBI of the season.

That 1-0 score held until the sixth, when Marcel Guardarrama sent a chopper past third base for a one-out single. Guardarrama advanced to second on a passed ball, and to third on a sacrifice bunt from Castrorao, before Rios replaced him on the bases and scored.

While Castrorao gave himself up in that instance, he was less generous from on the mound. As the game wore on he only seemed to grow stronger, striking out 10 of the final 11 batters he faced before Zambrano ended the contest by making a great diving play to snare a liner to first.

It was a fitting end after the way the team had backed their starter all night. Castrorao is an enigmatic leader who plays with a lot of emotion, and his teammates feed off of him and also communicate with him to keep him in control. The bond between the players shows strongly, and it leads to a very cohesive unit on the field.

“Me and my catcher Andrew Feldman are spot on, and whatever we want to do it shows in our heads,” said Castrorao. “We have been playing together for about 14 years, really my whole life. Me and my whole infield have been together since we were in elementary school, other than our new freshman third baseman. We’ve been playing together since then and we played together for Xtreme baseball. It shows out there.”

The Wildcats defense also delivered several big plays in support of Diaz. The most impactful came with bases loaded in the fifth, when the infield defense pulled off a 4-6-3 double play to escape the threat and keep it a one-run ball game at the time. They also recorded two big putouts on deep fly balls in the bottom of the second, after Alex Perez connected for the first of his two singles and then stole second to threaten.

Ultimately the Wildcats were not able to generate many scoring chances, and were unable to find much success against the hot right hand of Castrorao. Although the game does not count against the district standings anymore, Westland had been hoping to use it as a springboard.

“We’ve got to try and win every game we can and that was a tough one to drop,” said Coach Alvarez. “It was a one-zip game all the way to the sixth, but we just couldn’t get enough done and couldn’t get enough pressure on them. Now they have got to get their minds right, let this go and come ready to work on Monday. They can’t dwell on a loss, and we have to keep moving forward.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!