Columbus secures GMAC baseball championship, topping Varela in the final
They have much bigger fish to fry down the road.
After all, when you're talking Columbus baseball, the bar of success is set very high.
Thus when the final out was recorded in Friday evening's 5-2 victory over Varela in the GMAC championship game at Miami-Dade North's Demie Mainieri Field, the celebration was a modest one - a few high-fives, a fist bump or two and that was about it.
The Explorers (18-4) hit the road next week to compete in the National High School Baseball Invitational in Cary, North Carolina followed by the district and regional playoffs.
'I know they've really been excited and looking forward to the trip so I was worried about them staying focused on the task at hand that was in front of us which was beating Varela and win GMACs,' said long-time Columbus head coach Joe Weber who watched his team win their third GMAC title in the last four years. 'It's been kind of a struggle offensively at times this season but we did enough today to get it done. We get a nice trophy for winning GMACs again and we'll proudly take it and move on to next week.'
What broke Weber's heart was the effort his starting pitcher Matt Rios turned in and not being able to see him finish it off.
One of the top pitchers in the county, Rios was masterful all game long, scattering five hits while striking out eight batters. With his team comfortably in front 5-0, he was one strike away from finishing off a complete game shutout.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Varela's Jonathan Paniagua hit a routine grounder to shortstop. But instead of an easy flip to second for the force out that would've ended the game, the Columbus shortstop fired to first and the ball sailed high over first baseman Rene Ramirez's head allowing a run to score.
Rios had hit his max 105 pitch count and Weber had to come and get him. Wyatt Goins came in and eventually got the final out to record the save.
'You feel just awful for Matt,' Weber said. 'He was absolutely running on fumes out there and bulldogging it trying to get to the finish line but he couldn't quite get there. Just a super competitor with impressive numbers, I really think he might be one of the best pitchers in the county.'
Rios finished the game with eight strikeouts giving him a county-best 58 on the season while improving his record to 6-1 which included a no-hitter against Westminster Christian on March 3.
'Yeah, that was tough, I really would've like to have been able to close it out but it's all good,' said Rios, a senior who is committed to South Alabama. 'It's about winning the game and I trust in my relievers behind me and knew they had me. I think our mentally right now is one game at a time and to not look too far ahead. Today we came out focused on just this game, winning GMACs and now we're looking forward to our trip next week to North Carolina.'
Rios battled toe-to-toe all game long against Varela starter Christian Ponte who was throwing a gem of his own. The only run he gave up over the first five innings was a second inning unearned run by the Explorers on a second base throwing error that allowed Aquiles Arzano to score from third.
Ponte actually had a one-hitter going into the sixth when the Explorers' bats finally woke up with three hits, including a leadoff double by Jose Correa. Coupled with two more walks and a Varela fielding error, Columbus scored four times in the inning. They would prove to be insurance runs when the Vipers (13-6-2) rallied to score twice in the final inning.
Seeded No. 4 in the tournament, Varela was looking for a first-ever GMAC title and coming off a big 4-0 upset of top-seeded Miami Springs two days earlier in the semifinals. But the Vipers were forced to play Friday's game short-handed as four senior starters were not in the lineup thanks to a Grad Nite trip to Orlando.
'It is what it is,' Varela coach Brian Alvarez said. 'We knew awhile back that if we happened to make it to the GMAC final, we wouldn't have them available and would deal with it as best we could. I'm proud of the effort our kids turned in today.'
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