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Westminster opens title defense with win
Updated: May 18, 2011 8:42PM
The step up to the Class 2A playoffs didn’t seem to faze Westminster Christian one bit on Wednesday.
The top-seeded Warriors, who won the Class 1A state title a year ago, easily won their first round game of their own regional with a 10-0, five-inning, slaughter-rule victory over Chicago Rickover Naval Academy.
Starting pitcher Ryan Perez struck out 12 batters in four innings to earn the win and improve to 9-1 on the season. Westminster (24-7) will face the winner of today’s Northridge Prep and St. Edward game in Saturday’s regional championship matchup.
“It’s a good start for us,” said Westminster coach Jeff Moeller. “We probably had a little jitters at the start, but we settled down and played good baseball. I like the way our pitchers threw strikes and we put the ball in play on offense and made things happen.”
The Warriors actually got off to a shaky start when the first two Rickover batters reached base on an error and a single to right field. However, that would be the only hit Perez would allow. He retired the next 13 batters he faced, all but one on strikeouts. The only other Rickover batter to reach base came on a dropped third strike. “I just had to settle down and throw strikes,” said Perez, in explaining how he got out of the first-inning jam. “I was able to get them off balance with my changeup and my curveball had a lot of bite to it.”
On the offensive side, the Warriors’ No. 1 and 2 batters in the order, Andrew Mason and Perez, set the table. The two each reached base all four times up to the plate. Mason went 3-for-4 with an RBI and four runs scored. He also reached on a fielder’s choice. Perez was 3-for-3 with a walk, two RBI and a run scored.
The Warriors nickel-and-dimed their way to a run in the first, two in the second, three in the third, one in the fourth and three in the fifth to close it out.
Mason opened the bottom of the first with a single, then went to second on an infield single by Perez, took third on a stolen base and scored the game’s first run on an error. The Warriors were aided by three walks in the second inning.
Perez and Kevin Elder drove in the two runs. In the third inning, Tyler Greene, Mason and Frank Oliver all had RBI singles. Dylan Scully led off the fourth with a single and was bunted over to second base by Ben Stevenson. He scored two batters later on a grounder from Will Woodhouse.
In the fifth inning, Mason once again started it all with a leadoff double. Perez drove him in with a single to right. He later scored on a wild pitch. The next batter, Oliver, reached on the ninth walk of the game issued by Rickover pitcher Erick Macedo. After stealing second, he scored on an error for the final run of the game. The Warriors had seven stolen bases in the game.
“We did a good job of getting runners on base and moving them around, “ said Moeller. “Most of the year we’ve been a little inconsistent on offense, but the last couple weeks we’ve been doing much better. The top of our order has been doing the job all year but now we are starting to get more production from the bottom.”
Elder came on in relief to pitch a perfect fifth inning, including two strikeouts.
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