Westminster Christian Makes State History With 3A Title

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Players and coaches took turns hugging and kissing the state championship trophy. Fans cheered emphatically just a few feet away, a joyous roar that echoed loudly throughout the confines of Fort Myers’ jetBlue Park. A moment that the Westminster Christian baseball family had awaited for a long time had finally arrived. The Warriors are once again state champions.

With an excellent balance of hitting, pitching and defense, Westminster Christian dispatched North Florida Christian 7-2 to win the Class 3A state championship on Tuesday night. It is the program’s first state title since 2010, and also an accomplishment that moves the Warriors into a tie with Key West for the most state championships in Florida history, with 11 each.

After a passionate and emotional battle on the field, the Warriors (24-7-1) then had to endure a battle with Mother Nature before the celebration could begin. Coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, the game was halted due to lightning and rain in the area. Two hours and forty-five minutes later, with no end to the delay in immediate sight, the game was officially called and the Warriors earned the victory.

While it was possibly the most unusual circumstances to end a state championship game, it was a fact that mattered very little to the victors. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of those circumstances came in the fact that the team’s fans were able to cheer and celebrate right there with the players in the stadium’s lower concourse, whereas they would not have been allowed onto the playing field had it ended in normal fashion.

“As a coach, your dream is to win a state title,” Warriors Manager Emil Castellanos said. “Just getting here is a tremendous accomplishment, but everybody says that if you don’t win it you don’t remember it. This is one that we are going to remember for a long time. We have been chasing this record for a long time. I am just proud of my boys. It was a team effort today and the guys played great. They work hard and it is just a special moment for our program and Westminster Christian.”

The championship is the team’s third under Castellanos, having also won it all in 2009 and 2010. For the current group of players, it is a moment to etch their place in program lore.

“In this program, we’re winning. It is all we do and all we talk about,” Senior Julian Infante said. “We were actually talking last night that our coach wanted to put together a banquet of a night for all the past champions at Westminster Christian to come back and play together. He told us it was up to us if we wanted to be a part of that night. So we got pumped up and we had to do it. Now, it is a great feeling to be able to be a part of those guys and to be a part of history.”

Side-armer Jagr Enriquez earned the victory on the mound, allowing two unearned runs over four-and-two-third innings of work. Making his first start of the season, the senior made the very most of that special honor to be the guy to help bring it home for his squad.

“My heart is zooming right now, and it is a dream come true,” Enriquez said. “It was my first start of the year and I knew I had to give it all that I’ve got. I did today and it paid off. It makes me feel great that my teammates and my coaches trust me, and I just wanted to show them that I can do anything to try and help this team out. This whole year I have been blessed to do so.”

Enriquez has been the team’s closer specialist, someone who has pitched a lot of relief innings to shut down teams and finish off victories. Although he has shined in his role for the team, the coaches never doubted that he was the right guy on the mound for the biggest game of the year.

“He’s a guy who has done it all year,” Castellanos said. “He’s Dade County’s finest closer and he went out and fought like a champion. He’s a warrior. He told me this morning, ‘I’m not going to give up Coach and I promise you I am going to bring this back home. This title means the world to me and you trusted in me since I was a freshman. You believed in me and you made me believe in me this year,’. So then he went out there and he did it.”

Senior ace Ryan Terry nearly went the distance with a huge semifinal victory on Monday that put the team in the championship. With his job complete and the remaining business in the hands of his teammates, Terry continued to be the vocal and emotional leader the club has come to rally around.

“I knew Jagr was going to do it; I’ve been saying that all year,” Terry said. “When I am not pitching the most that I can do is to help out my teammates and cheer for them. I just wanted to win this game. There are no words to describe it. It’s been four years I’ve been on this team, and I remember freshman year working out and just talking about this in the gym. Finally it’s come true, and I just love it. It’s got to be the best way to end my senior year.”

The Warriors went right to work backing their pitcher with some offense in the bottom of the first. Clinton Gulley drew a one-out walk and Infante then delivered a blast deep to left field and high off the Green Monster netting. Gulley raced all the way from first base to score on Infante’s RBI double, and Infante reached third base when the throw home was offline.

“Honestly, I just wanted to get it going for my team,” Infante said. “I wasn’t trying to be too big; I was just trying to put the bat on the ball. He threw a fastball by me and he wasn’t going to do that twice. You can’t miss on fastballs, and it went well. We got the good lead and from there we just kept going.”

The Warriors were just getting started with the big plays. Michael Arencibia dropped down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt that plated Infante to push it to a 2-0 advantage. Jacob Zarello helped keep the pressure on by working a walk, and Mike Acosta came in to run for him. Alvaro Valdez lined a single past second base to put runners on first and third, which prompted the Warriors to call for a double steal. Valdez timed his jump perfectly from first base to draw the throw, and Acosta came home to score as Valdez safely swiped second base.

After North Florida Christian (21-10) got on the scoreboard with an unearned run in the third, Westminster Christian increased the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Gulley lined the first pitch he saw deep over the center fielder for a leadoff double, and Arencibia followed with a liner to center that allowed Gulley to score after the ball was bobbled off the hop.

Again Zarello kept the line moving, this time with a single up the middle. Acosta came in to run for the catcher again, but this time was erased on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Valdez. The grounder to the second baseman got Acosta out at second base, but Valdez beat the throw to first on the double-play attempt to allow pinch-runner Miguel Cardoza to cross the plate.

The Warriors increased their lead with two more runs in the fourth. Alex Ruiz walked and gave way to pinch-runner Trei Cruz, who then advanced to second after Vilar dropped down a great bunt that went for a single when the ball managed to stay fair along the first base line. Mayans advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt, and Infante was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a force play. Cardoza made the strategy backfire when he dropped a single into left field to bring home Cruz and Vilar to push the lead to 7-1.

As well as the offense performed, the Warriors’ defense also did its part with several big plays. After allowing a base runner on an error in the top of the fourth, Westminster Christian got an excellent double play when Valdez caught a liner to center and then fired back to Arencibia at first base to double off the runner.

In the top of the sixth the Eagles’ Trey Pearce walked and Matthew Dickey singled to push Pearce to third. Valdez relayed the throw home to Zarello, who then rifled the ball to Anthony Vilar to pick off Dickey attempting to reach to second base. A liner to Adrian Mayans from the next batter led to another double play, as the right fielder gunned the ball to Zarello in time to catch Pearce attempting to tag up and score.

That out would be the final play of the contest. The lightning detector signaled sparks in the area, and the field was cleared. After a downpour of rain and endless sparks, the decision was finally made to call the game official and present the Warriors with their trophy.

“We thought we were going to have to wait until midnight, and we were ready,” Castellanos said. “We were having our guys getting deep body massages and doing whatever it takes. We were going to fight and stay here, and the other team has to stay with it too. It is adversity, but the boys played hard and they deserved this win. This is a big win for the boys.”

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