Westminster Christian stages comeback to reach 3A state title game
FORT MYERS
Manny Marin is a shortstop for the United States Olympic team and was a starter for the Under-18 national team.
But Marin wasn’t thinking about the future Tuesday afternoon.
Marin was living for the moments he hoped to be in when he came to Miami Westminster Christian this season.
They came in the form of a clutch double in the bottom of the sixth inning to drive in the go-ahead run and a textbook double play he started to help seal a wild 6-4 comeback victory over Jacksonville Trinity Christian in a Class 3A state semifinal at Hammond Stadium.
The win propelled Westminster Christian to the state championship game and earned it an opportunity to secure a state-leading 12th state title when it faces Coconut Creek North Broward Prep at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a rare allSouth Florida matchup.
It will be only the fifth time in state history that teams from Miami-Dade and Broward will square off for a state championship and the first since
Parkland Douglas beat Miami Columbus in 2016.
“These are the moments you dream of as a kid,” Marin said. “When they come you slow the heart rate and make the play. It showed our character and I don’t think we quit at all ever this year. We’re going to keep showing it.”
Westminster (25-4) was down to its final six outs, trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth, after the Conquerors plated two runs by capitalizing on an error and a wild pitch.
James Suarez singled and Gabriel Mejia and Eric Eikenberg each drew walks to lead the bases.
Senior second baseman Willie Alvarez, who was on the Warriors’ last team to reach state in 2021, then belted a single to left that scored two runs.
Then, things got crazy. The throw back into the infield by Trinity Christian left fielder Brayden Harris caught shortstop Jordan Martinez square on the elbow and bounded all the way to the wall in left-field foul ground. This allowed the tying run (Eikenberg) to score with no outs.
This set up Marin’s goahead double, two batters later, to score Alvarez.
“I had no idea what was going on,” Alvarez said. “It felt like a dream and I got kind of lost there.
“Scoring those runs were vital and it showed our fight. No matter what the score is, we’re going to fight. My freshman year, we took a tough loss in the state championship. It taught me how much fight you need to have.”
Then it was time for Marin and Alvarez to seal the game on defense.
Trinity Christian had a runner at first and one out when Marin fielded a sharp grounder to short, turned and fired to Alvarez, who then completed a gameending double play after the throw to first baseman Jose Lopez.
“You have to keep fighting and that’s who we are. We’re warriors,” Westminster Christian coach Emil Castellanos said. “We always joke with our kids that you never understand the game of baseball…We had some bad beats earlier but these guys kept battling.”
Westminster starter Lazaro Collera exited the game after 5⅔ innings during which he allowed three earned runs on seven hits and three walks and struck out 11.
Reliever Austin Weigandt, whom the team nicknamed “Deadbolt” for the way he locks down the outcome of games late, relieved the University of Miami commit and picked up a key out to limit the damage in the sixth. He then recorded the save after allowing only the lone hit in the seventh.
Westminster fell behind early after Collera allowed a home run to University of Florida commit Brady Harris. Another UF commit, Ethan Wheeler, had the Warriors contained at the plate for part of the game, allowing only one run on five hits and one walk while striking out six over 4⅓ innings.
“That kid is a superstar going to the University of Florida,” Castellanos said. “But we just put guys in pressure situations.”
The last time Westminster faced North Broward Prep was in 2022, when the Eagles prevailed in a different kind of wild game in which they hit 11 home runs at the Warriors’ home field to eliminate them in the regional finals.
Castellanos expects Wake Forest commit Aaron Hernandez to start Wednesday. The Warriors are hoping to win their first state title since 2015 and finally surpass Key West at the top of the state record book.
“I want these guys to experience that ‘pile’ because that means they’ll be in the history books,” Castellanos said.
“No offense to travel baseball, but this is what ends up in the history books.”