West Boca Avoids Upset, Edges Santaluces To Advance

Angelo Dovas went the distance for the Bulls.

West Boca continued its fine home play and improved to 6-1 all-time in regional quarterfinal play Saturday night, but it wasn’t easy or routine.

Santaluces, in the postseason for the first time since 2005, gave the Bulls all they could handle in a 2-1 game that wasn’t decided until the final out.

“I knew they were a scrappy club and weren’t going to give up,” West Boca Manager Nick Siano said. “Their No. 1 Cody (Wager), we knew he had some good stuff, and he kept us off balance. It was a fortunate situation. We put the ball in the play, and we preach that, when you do that, things happen.”

The game’s key play came with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the score tied at one, when an infield throwing error allowed Joe White to come across with the winning run.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better performance from Cody, and I’m proud of our season,” Chiefs Manager Nick Franco said. “West Boca has six losses all season, and they know how to win. It was just a bad way to end.”

Cody Wager pitched well in a losing effort.

Mistakes were the theme of the night, which was a shame as both Wager (one earned run on five hits in five and one-third innings) and Bulls starter Angelo Dovas (seven innings, one unearned run on five hits) pitched superbly.

The opening run came in the fifth inning when West Boca’s Chris Busch hit a towering pop-up that just got lost in the twilight sky and dropped on the infield dirt for a double.

Busch advanced to third on a Dovas single and then crossed the plate when leadoff hitter Michael Mule’s sacrifice fly to right was plenty deep enough.

With the way both pitchers were dealing, it looked like the single run might hold up, but the Chiefs (13-12-1) took advantage of an outfield error in the sixth to take the lead. Joseph Strzelecki’s two-out deep fly was dropped, allowing cleanup hitter Troy Steele to score the tying run and set up an interesting finish.

The Bulls celebrate after their victory.

Things looked to be going to extras when Gary Garcia hit what seemed to be a harmless ground ball with two outs and runners on first and second in the seventh, but nothing is a given in high school baseball, and the Bulls (19-6) ended up victorious.

West Boca will now host district foes Atlantic in the 7A regional semifinals, with both teams having met three times already this season. The Bulls won all three in the last at-bat.

“We’re in for a battle. Atlantic is a great ballclub,” said Siano, who has dealt with pitching injuries all season. “We’re just going to throw the kitchen sink. We know a lot about them, and they know a lot about us. It’s all just going to come down to execution.”

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