Gulliver Outlasts Florida Christian In Pitching Duel

At a packed Patriots Field the Gulliver Prep Raiders visited the Florida Christian Patriots for the regional quarterfinal. The fans in attendance enjoyed a pitching showdown between the Raiders’ Davis Brown and Patriots’ Alex Valverde.

It was Brown emerging on top, as Gulliver won 2-0 to set up a rematch with Key West in the regional semifinals.

Coming into a game against a good team on their home field, Manager Javy Rodriguez was confident in his Raiders.

“These guys have been up the whole second half,” said Rodriguez. “We won 15 out of 17; we’re hot right now and our team is playing to its maximum capacity.”

The Raiders (20-8) got on the board after a couple of fielding miscues during the fourth inning. Marcos reached on an throwing error from the second baseman, then came in on a hit to right field by Alex Erro.

“I was just trying to stay off the off-speed pitches and look for the fast ball,” said Erro. “He was coming in with good speed so all you have to do is put the bat on the ball and it will go.”

Erro reached third base on an error on the play, then scored on a wild pitch to give the Raiders all the runs they would need. Valverde only allowed one baserunner the rest of the game to give the Patriots (20-8) a fighting chance. The Raiders had also come out aggressive during the second inning, with three straight singles from Gio Soto, German Marcos and Nick Acosta to load the bases with no outs. Valverde bounced back to retire the next three batters to escape the jam with no damage.

Meanwhile Brown held the Patriots to no hits until Jorge Iza laid down a bunt single with two outs in the third inning. The threat ended quickly when Iza was caught stealing.

“I just wanted to throw strikes and keep them off balance,” said Brown. “Just make sure they were off my timing and just take control of the game and pace it.”

Brown encountered some trouble for the first time in the game during the fourth inning. Jack Diaz had a two-out hit, followed by a walk to Erik Montero. Brown then struck out the next batter to strand the two base runners.

The Patriots kept the pressure on Brown during the fifth, this time from the start of the inning. Chris Gandara worked a leadoff walk and advanced to second base on a ground ball. Brown again managed to finish the inning with no damage done, striking out the next two batters after working deep counts.

“I was getting a little tired,” said Brown. “I was trying to keep pitches down and drive off my back leg and get my off-speed over the plate.”

Brown finished the day after five innings, striking out seven while allowing two walks and two hits.

Rodriguez decided to go to his bullpen for the sixth and brought in junior Michael Gonzalez. The Patriots took advantage of the pitching change to try and do some damage. Ruben Someillan and Diaz had back-to-back singles and Montero followed with a walk to load the bases. Finding himself in a bases loaded and one-out situation Rodriguez went to his bullpen again, this time giving the ball to Rob Touron. Touron struck out the next two batters to escape the jam and give the Gulliver fans in attendance a sigh of relief.

“I just thought in my head, relax and don’t make this the last game for your seniors,” said Touron. “After the final out of that inning shifted momentum and everyone got up for the next inning.”

Touron retired the side in the seventh to give the Raiders another playoff victory, keeping them alive and eager for another showdown with the district rival Conchs.

For the Patriots and Manager Chris Brigman a 20-win season comes to an end.

“We’ve been together everyday for five months and know tomorrow there is nothing for us to do,” said Brigman. “That’s the part that hurts, that it ends that quick. But we’ll take a couple days off and regroup, put the work in during the summer and look forward to next year.”

As the Patriots season is over, for seniors like Michael Campos, their high-school baseball careers are over.

“It’s indescribable,” said Campos thinking back on his high-school career. ”It’s an opportunity that I was blessed to have here at Florida Christian. I was blessed to play four years of varsity here. We have to learn to appreciate it. We take things for granted and it ends in a blink of an eye.”

The Raiders look to keep up their playoff surge with seniors like Joe Dunand looking to keep his team focused to keep the playoff run going.

“This game is already past us,” said Dunand. “Next game we are going to play pitch to pitch, inning to inning and 100 percent focused and with 100 percent energy.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!