Fast Start Propels West Broward Past Miami Senior

The message delivered by Steven Revilla came on the second pitch of the game.

The West Broward junior wasn’t about to let his season end Thursday in Miami Beach. Revilla, a smooth-swinging lefty, opened the night by drilling a fastball off the right-field fence at Flamingo Park for a standup triple that set the tone in West Broward’s 9-0 win against Miami Senior in an 8A regional quarterfinal.

“It’s great to start off with momentum,” said Revilla, who went 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI, and three runs scored. “Last week we had a tough loss to Flanagan, 1-0. So just to get us going and score in the first inning, and the way our pitchers have been throwing the ball, just a couple of runs is all we need.”

West Broward (15-10) advances to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2012. Champion of 8A-14, Miami struggled to make solid contact all night and managed just two hits against 6-foot-6 senior right-hander Michael Schappell. Miami ended its season with a 17-9 record.

“(Schappell) did a heckuva job,” Miami Manager Frank Suarez said. “All they had to do was score one run because we didn’t do much with the bat. They have a very good team.”

After his triple, Revilla crossed the plate on a groundout by Chayce Hay-Eldon. West Broward upped its early lead to 6-0 by sending 10 batters to the plate in a five-run second that featured four hits, two hit-batsmen and a bases-loaded walk. Revilla knocked in one of the runs on a single and Samyr Santos brought home his team-leading 24th and 25th RBIs of the season with a single through the left side.

West Broward tacked on three runs in the sixth, including an RBI single from Richie Garcia.

Dalton Brockman reached base in all four of his trips, which included two singles and an RBI walk.
While West Broward’s bats racked up 11 hits against three pitchers, Schappell found his rhythm early, worked quickly and breezed to his second consecutive shutout and fifth win of the season. He threw less than 80 pitches and faced 23 batters in a complete-game gem that included nine strikeouts and no walks.

It was yet another strong performance from a staff that is peaking at the right time. West Broward pitchers have yielded just one earned run in their last 27 innings.

“Right now we’re riding the arms of Schappell and Nicholas MacDonald, and we have four other guys in the bullpen ready to come in for them if need be,” West Broward Manager Sergio Ambros said.

Miami, which has gone 33-19 the past two years after winning just two games in 2013, never mounted any momentum against Schappell. A clean single by Christopher Rodriguez in the second inning and a sliced double down the right field line by Oney Pino accounted for Miami’s only offense.

Miami’s loss marked the final game for seven seniors.

“It’s sad that it ended up like this,” Suarez said. “We never wanted this to end. We wanted a five-game winning streak to win the state.”

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