West Boca Rides Win Streak To Five In A Row

Bradley Busch threw three innings of relief for West Boca.

The week of spring break is not all about sun screen and surf boards. For Broward high school baseball players on vacation from school this week they still got to suit up and take the diamond. Wednesday night provided a cross-county battle between two top-ranked teams.

The red-hot Cooper City Cowboys visited the streaking West Boca Bulls in a collision course guaranteed to derail one team’s winning streak. It was West Boca who remained perfect at home by winning 7-4 over the visiting Cowboys. The Bulls have now won five straight, while the Cowboys (11-4) saw their run halted at eight games.

Wednesday night was a game of executions, and the team that was able to move runners and execute scoring chances came out on top. The Bulls (11-1) wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. After just three batters sent to the plate, Joe White scored from third on a fumbled ball on an infield hit. Chris Busch landed on second after the play ended, and later scored on a Koby Pepia double to left-center field, giving the Bulls a 2-0 lead.

“You never know how you’re going to win a game, so we always approach practice a little differently,” said Bulls Manager Nick Siano. “Every practice we have a different agenda that we want to accomplish. Whether its hitting back side or working on our stealing and reading balls in the dirt. I think our guys are really getting it. One night a guy is going to be on the hill and we’re going to have to manufacture a run. That’s what we did today, yeah we scored seven runs but we didn’t have that big hit in the situation. We kind of just moved guys over and produced a run here and there.”

The game played out like a 0-0 battle right down to the final out. As runs were going to be hard to come by, each team needed to make the most of their opportunities. Both dugouts made it clear that they were present, with their levels of intensity and chanting.

“The name of the game in this loss was leaving runners on base,” said Cowboys Manager Wayne Stofsky. “We left the bases loaded at least twice, runners on second and third a few times. Baseball is all about three things; good pitching, good defense, and timely hitting. Our pitching was good at times tonight, our defense was very good, but we never got that big hit. Bases were loaded with less than two outs, we just didn’t get that timely hit at all. If we do it’s a different ball game.”

Angelo Dovas got the start for the Bulls.

The Bulls Angelo Dovas demonstrated the “bend but not break” theory as he threw four innings and struck out four, picking up the win. The Cowboys forced Dovas to throw from the stretch each of his four innings, but were unable to break through. In the third, after a walk and hit from the first two batters, Dovas found himself in a little jam. With a three-run cushion and first base open the Bulls decided to pitch to Philip Tomasulo.

Tomasulo went with an outside pitch and hit a double to right-center, driving in two runs for his second hit of the evening that cut the lead to 3-2. Tomasulo went a perfect 4-for-4 with three singles, a double, two RBIs and a run.

In the home half of the fourth, the Bulls looked to separate a little from the chasing Cowboys. After two fly outs and a walk, Ricardo Gonzalez drove in his first of two RBIs with a double to right center that was just outside of Tomasulo’s diving range. Gonzalez added more insurance in the sixth when he singled in his second RBI and later scored to top a three-run inning. Gonzalez finished 2-for-3 with a walk, two stolen bases, two RBIs and a run for West Boca.

“He is sophomore, and a guy we have moved. We thought he was going to play infield for us, then we moved him to right,” said Siano about young starter Ricardo Gonzalez. “Now our third baseman is out with a hip flexer and he comes in ready to play third. He is a gamer, young, raw, and he just wants to win. Ricardo will do whatever it takes to win, on the field, in the line up, it doesn’t matter with him.”

The Cowboys made noise in the seventh but in the end wasn’t enough to overcome a five-run deficit. Both managers knew this was as big of a non-district game as it gets, but with each team fighting for a number one seed in their own district it seemed they didn’t want to let the leash off. The players had different emotions as the game progressed. In what started as a quiet sunset baseball game, turned into a preview of two playoff squads going at it.

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