Revilla’s RBI’s Enough As West Broward Tops Western

Thursday night the Western Wildcats played host to the West Broward Bobcats in a battle of right-handers, where the Bobcats edged out a 2-0 win on the road.

West Broward starting pitcher Michael Schappell tossed 77 pitches in a complete-game, one-hit shutout over the Wildcats. Schappell was dominant from the start, retiring the first 11 batters before an error allowed Matthew Patricio to reach base. Schappell forced the next batter to ground out as one of his 12 ground ball force outs on the evening.

“When I start throwing strikes I like to get in rhythm. I like to get the calls from Coach and throw strikes,” Schappell said. “I think it throws the other team off and I can keep pounding the strike zone.”

Through the first five innings, the offence for both teams were held scoreless. Unable to get anything started at the plate, Western leaned on their pitching to keep it close.

Christian Coleman received the nod for the Wildcats and threw five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. Under a close pitch count, Manager Paul Barnes went to his bull pen in the sixth.

The Bobcats struck in the top of the sixth, taking a 2-0 lead. Steven Revilla, who lined into an inning-ending double play early in the game, capitalized in his final at-bat with the deciding runs on a two-run double.

“We didn’t have any bad at-bats throughout the game tonight, but late in the game we had runners on second and third and we came through,” Revilla said. “We had to stay motivated; these are the types of game we will be in all year. We are not going to blow anyone out. That’s not the type of team we are. We just need to keep grinding out and we will compete with any team on any day.”

Schappell continued his command and overpowering presence in the sixth and seventh, leading West Broward to its third win of the young season.

“Michael kept us in the game the whole night, and that’s our type of team that we are, a team that’s going to grind it out this year more than ever,” Bobcats Manager Sergio Abros.

Ambros was proud of his team’s willingness to never give up. In a scoreless game, when pitchers are working quickly and dominating as they did Thursday night, it can be easy for players to lose themselves in the game. Ambros and the Bobcats are excited to have come out with a road win against a tough Wildcat team.

“Just stay positive, just stay positive,” Manager Ambros repeated. “We had good at-bats that resulted in some outs early in the game. We knew we were having good approaches seeing the ball and it was just a matter of staying positive with the guys. We preach two-out hits and got a big one from Revilla in the sixth.”

Manager Paul Barnes and the Wildcats look to put the loss behind them and get ready for a tough district week ahead of them. Although they were unable to score Thursday, Barnes stresses that his team will be ready to score in their next game.

“Great pitching tonight, from their side and ours,” Barnes said. “They had a few more opportunities than us tonight and took advantage of one in the sixth. We just were unable to get anything together.”

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