Veliz And Wells Carry Key West Over Westminster

Westminster is an offensive ball club, and the Warriors may be the most feared lineup in the Miami-Dade County. Friday afternoon, they welcomed Key West and their powerful pitching, in a clash of two powerhouses that are a display of the highest level of baseball from the county.

On this day, pitching won out, as the Conchs were led by a duo of power arms to a 3-2 win against the Warriors in eight innings.

“We played very fundamental, with the pitching staff that we have, we can play for a run every time that we can,” Conchs Manager Ralph Enriquez explained. “The bottom of the order came through, they had great at-bats, base hits and we pull the game out there. A great team win for us.”

Key West (16-3-1) starting pitcher Gregory Veliz (6-0) and his relief, Steven Wells, combined to only allow a hit and strike out 11. They were both on point on the night, mixing 90 MPH heat with breaking balls that had the powerful Westminster (15-4-1) offense guessing.

“We knew they were a good team, but we just came out and did our job,” Veliz said. “We know we are good enough to shut down anybody in Miami.”

Veliz, a sophomore who is highly touted by his peers, cruised through the first four frames. He allowed the first runner to reach base in the fifth. This was an inning that proved to be problematic for the power pitcher, he lost his spots and seemed to be a little tired. With a couple of walks and a hit by pitch, Westminster was able to manufacture two runs, one of them a highlight reel steal of home.

Warrior Manager Emil Castellanos, after the game gave an insight on the decision of going for the steal of home.

“When you got a guy on the mound that is that dominant, you got to try to get every angle you can,” Castellanos said. “That was just a little window of opportunity we saw and took it. That it’s the only way you are going to beat him on the mound. You have to take advantage of the opportunities and go after him.”

The play in fact surprised Veliz and the Key West team. Enriquez explained that his squad was not ready for the play and gave props to his opponent for going for it on the situation.

“It did surprised us,” said Enriquez. “We normally do not pitch from the full windup in that spot, but Gregory struggled a little bit in that inning, he lost the strike zone and he wasn’t repeating his pitches, so we decided to go with whatever he was comfortable with. Emil made a good call; he saw that our pitcher was taking too long and he took a gamble that paid off.”

After the fifth, the Conchs decided to bring in Wells, who finished the day with four strikeouts in the last three innings for the win.

“This year out of a total of 35 I have three walks. I throw strikes, I make them put the ball in play and I throw pretty hard for high school level,” Wells said. “It’s kind of challenging sometimes on teams. When Veliz and I are throwing, it is a pretty good combination.”

With the game tied at two, the eighth inning brought Key West to bat with a desire of finishing things up, but a couple of quick first outs didn’t give any hope to the away team. With two men out, Brandon Presley and Chris Varela hit two solid line drives and the third baseman Hunter Sellers drove in the eventual winning run with a single up the middle.

Afterwards, Enriquez explained the decision to pull Veliz out, putting a new pitcher, and how his bullpen and rotation has worked so far in the season.

“Veliz started to get a little bit tired. He was close to seventy pitches at that point. He wasn’t as sharp as he was in the beginning but that’s how we been playing all year because we still have three other good arms behind him,” Enriquez said of his pitching strategy. ”We don’t have a pitcher that has thrown a complete game in the whole year, because what we have been using is a piggy back system.”

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