Westminster Shows Resolve, Tops Miami Country Day

Residing on the back wall of the Westminster Academy baseball team’s dugout reads a sign that says “Don’t worry about things that you can not control.”

It’s a mantra that Lions coach Nick James says he tries to instill in all of his players’ minds.

So when Westminster Academy found themselves in a 4-0 hole early against Miami Country Day, the attitude served them well.

Each passing inning, the Lions (6-3) found ways to score runs by scratching a run here and collecting a run there.

By the time the bottom of the sixth inning rolled around, it set up Weston Clemente’s bases-loaded, two-out walk that scored Daniel D’Onofrio for the go-ahead run as Lions rallied back to defeat Miami Country Day 5-4 at the Westminster Academy Sports Complex on Thursday night.

In the top of the seventh, D’Onofrio entered as a relief pitcher with runners on first and second and nobody out. After an initial walk to load the bases, the junior buckled down to strike out the next two batters and got the last batter to ground out and end the game.

“I knew my defense would do work for me,” D’Onofrio said. “Once I got the bases loaded, I didn’t concentrate on the runners so much. I concentrated on the hitter. I zoned in a little bit more. I just pounded the zone. That second one felt really good. Then, after that, I could just trust my defense.”

The Lions got a scattering team effort with D’Onofrio, Will Buschmann, Clemente, Will Scasserra, Jake Dudas and Daniel Burns each recording one hit. Six players drew a combined nine walks. Buschmann stole his sixth and seventh bases of the season (tops in District 14-3A) while D’Onofrio, Joey Knight, Jake Dudas and Burns also swiped a bag.

An encouraged coach James lauded the victory given the opponent and the way in which the game was won.

“The left-hander from down there is throwing well,” James said. “I know that he [Jake Weiss] had a couple of good outings. We were excited to get them up here. Paul [Barrios] is a great coach and they have two good arms. I think that lefty struck out 15 last week. It’s a good outing for us to see a quality left-hander, so we like that when we can get it. There’s not many of those around.”

Miami Country Day coach Paul Barrios remained optimistic with the feeling that his team is one step closer to seeing even more success.

“That’s a great game,” said Barrios, whose team dropped to 5-3. “It’s tough to be on the losing side, but if we can learn from this against a quality opponent like them, we’ll be fine. Bases loaded and nobody out, and we can’t score. It’s tough. One hit, and we would have won. You know what? Another day. We’ll play tomorrow, and we’ll get that taste out of our mouths right away.”

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