West Boca Shuts Out Boca Raton To Earn First Win

West Boca’s Chris Busch was 1-for-3 with an RBI as the Bulls shut out city rival Boca Raton 3-0 on Friday.

The West Boca Bulls have all the components of a legitimate contender.

Now if the young team ever realizes that for themselves they could be very difficult to defeat.

So after dropping its first two games of the season, the Bulls came into Friday’s crosstown rivalry game with the Bobcats looking to shake that winless monkey off of their backs by playing up to their potential.

According to Bulls Manager Nick Siano, the team finally played a complete game by executing in all three phases of hitting, pitching and defense.

Behind this performance West Boca cruised to a 3-0 shutout victory over Boca Raton, in the latest installment of this city rivalry played at West Boca High Friday evening.

“When we put all three phases together we’re a pretty good team,” Siano said. “We did not have any errors on defense, we only walked three batters and we hit the ball with timely hits. We’re a young team and we still have a lot of room to grow as a ballclub, but they are starting to get it.”

The Bulls (1-2) avenged a 1-0 shutout defeat at the hands of the Bobcats last season by recording their first shutout victory since blanking John I. Leonard on April 11, 2012.

Junior Bradley Busch picked up the win on the mound as he scattered four hits over five innings while throwing 47 of his 75 pitches for strikes. The right-hander walked only two hitters and recorded six strikeouts, with four of those coming off of a nasty curveball that was swung at all night but was rarely touched.

With the pitching clicking and the defense coming up with several big plays, the offense pitched in by batting around the order and scoring all of its runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Even though Bobcats starter Matt Alen was throwing well and pounding the strike zone, the Bulls’ hitters were able to string together the big inning by taking a strong approach at the plate that did not allow Alen to settle into any rhythm.

West Boca’s Sean Kuchta leads off at first after reaching on a single, and later scored in the inning.

“We talk about being aggressive early in the count and then protect when you have two strikes,” Siano explained. “Our motto is hit the ball hard on the ground because we want the defense to work.”

Sean Kuchta sent a shot to third for a leadoff single in the second, and Joe White followed by crushing one to deep centerfield for a standup double that put both runners in scoring position with no outs.

John Sanders then came up with the biggest hit of the night when he sent a liner screaming down the third baseline for a two-RBI hit that put him on second base.

“You’ve got to give them credit, they got that big knock on the double down the line there,” Boca Raton Manager Rick Clagett said. “We had our opportunities but we just weren’t able to answer that.”

Sanders had the only multi-hit night for either team in going 2-for-3.

But the Bulls were not done there, as Koby Pepia singled on a well-placed blooper to shallow right field and then Gary Garcia walked to load the bases.

The Bobcats (1-3) nearly managed to escape the inning by putting away the next two batters on a force-out at home and a flyout to left field. But Chris Busch drove a pitch up the middle to push Pepia across the plate for the games final run.

Matt Alen took the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year, despite a performance that left Clagett more than pleased.

“We gave up a lot of runs our last few games, but tonight the pitching was much better,” Clagett said.

Boca Raton’s Andrew Sperling singled and stole second in the first inning and was 1-for-2 with a walk.

The senior righty threw 59 of his 86 pitches for strikes, allowing seven hits and a pair of walks while picking up three strikeouts.

Besides simply playing error-free on the night the Bulls also benefited from several big defensive plays, particularly in the top of the fourth inning when left fielder Nick D’Agostino ran down a deep shot from Dakotah Radabaugh to make a tough catch at the fence to record the final out of the frame.

Boca’s best scoring chance came in the top of the second inning, as catcher Micheal Amditis slapped a leadoff single up the middle and ultimately put the Bobcats on third base after courtesy runner A.J. Brown stole both bases to get within ninety feet of home plate.

The Bobcats pulled the trigger on a double-steal attempt when two batters later T.J. Tamaccio drew a walk to put runners on the corners. But the Bulls were able to react in time and gun down Brown at the plate.

Busch then recorded a strikeout on a called third strike to escape the threat unscathed.

Boca would not threaten again, and Angelo Dovas worked two hitless innings to close out the victory and earn his first save of the season.

“We turned the page tonight and I think we’ll have a successful season if we stay with this approach,” Siano said.

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