Florida Christian Rallies To Defeat Pace

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Florida Christian and Monsignor Pace had met twice this year before Wednesday’s 4A-15 semifinal game. In each case, the Spartans played the Patriots tight, before eventually losing. On Wednesday, history repeated itself, but not before a wild back-and-forth affair that took eight innings to sort out. In the end, Florida Christian emerged with a 6-5 victory in extra innings, securing a trip to the district championship game in the process.

“That was a heavyweight fight,” said Pace Manager Tom Duffin. “We just kept throwing punches back and forth. Unfortunately for us, they landed the last punch.”

In the sixth inning it looked as though the Spartans might have pulled off the upset, as they took a 5-4 lead. That lead held until the bottom of the seventh. An error, a walk, and a base hit loaded the bags with one out. Seve Rodriguez then hit a chopper to third, and when third baseman Leroy Garcia opted to take the force at third for the second out, Chris Gandara came in with the tying run.

In the eighth, Brandon Chinea was hit by a pitch to start the inning. After a Ruben Someillan sacrifice bunt, Chinea went to third on a fly out to right. That set the stage for the wild ending.

Manuel Rodriguez, who had pitched the Spartans into a position to win, threw a wild pitch. Chinea broke for home, but realized he was going to be out, so he turned back for third. Catcher Eliott Cutillas fired the ball to third, leading Chinea to turn again and break for the plate. When the return throw came in high, Chinea slid in with the winning run.

“I was just thinking I was going to score on the wild pitch,” said Chinea. “When I realized I was in trouble, I can’t really remember what I was thinking then, but it didn’t hit me that we had won until after I slid across the plate and the ump called me safe.”

The loss left a bitter taste in the mouths of the young Spartans, who had come a long way from their 2-14 start.

“I am extremely proud with how this team reacted this year, and how they kept working to get better,” said Duffin. “They could have folded the tent after that tough start, but instead, they kept coming to practice and working to get better. It is a very young team, and anyone that saw us early in the year knows the team out there tonight looked nothing like the team at the start, so we are proud of their development. But in the end, it’s still a game tonight that we could have, and maybe should have won.”

The back-and-forth nature of the game started early in this one.

The Patriots started the scoring in the bottom of the first. Chinea, Someillan, and Jack Diaz all worked walks to load the bases and signal the end of the night for Spartans starter Chris Basilio. Peter Diaz came in and recorded a strikeout. Gandara followed the strikeout with an RBI single up the middle. Robert Fabelo then worked a walk of his own, making the score 2-0.

In the second, Pace showed that they would not lie down on this night by scoring two runs of their own. Andres Sanchez led off the inning with a double. After Anthony Boix reached on an error, Jonathan Reyes-Diaz hit a two-out, two-run double to right, and suddenly the score was tied at two.

In their half of the second, Florida Christian immediately regained the lead when Someillan, who had singled, came in to score on a fielding error.

Pace again answered the bell in the third, tying the game at three. Cutillas singled, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error, and scored on Sanchez’ second double of the game.

The see-saw battle continued in the Patriots third. Robert Fabelo launched a solo home run to right, giving Florida Christian the lead once again at 4-3. The Patriots threatened to score more, but the left-fielder Boix made a nice catch on a sinking line drive, and turned it into an inning-ending double play.

Pace answered in the fourth, tying the game at four, and took the lead in the sixth when Boix scored the go-ahead run on an error.

After Florida Christian had completed the comeback, Manager Chris Brigman reflected on the close call.

“We’ve had three dogfights with them,” said Brigman. “I just kept telling these guys between innings that we had to keep at it. Our district is one of the toughest in the county, and we knew what they were capable of. Somehow we were able to keep battling and eventually came out on top.”

While Pace used three pitchers on the night, Florida Christian’s ace, Alex Valverde, went the distance for the Patriots, allowing only two earned runs in his eight innings of work. Valverde struck out nine, and seemed to be getting stronger as the game went on.

“I just told myself in the seventh inning that I couldn’t let them score again,” said Valverde. “At that point in the game, I actually felt stronger than when the game started. I had to give my team a chance to win, and to do that I couldn’t allow any more runs.”

Florida Christian will now move into the 4A-15 championship game on Friday against St. Brendan.

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