Columbus tops West Broward behind Vazquez’s pitching gem, braces for Douglas rematch
They call Jason Vazquez, “Smiley” on the Columbus baseball team.
The Explorers’ sophomore pitcher lived up to his nickname, still cracking a smile often on Saturday night even after pitching six impressive innings to help Columbus secure a 7-2 win over West Broward in a Region 4-7A semifinal on its home field.
“It felt great and my team didn’t make a single error today,” said Vazquez, who allowed only one unearned run on two hits and struck out five. “My fastball felt great and my team scored seven runs. It was great.”
Vazquez, who improved to 5-2 with a 1.45 ERA in eight starts this season, delivered a key performance for Columbus to win its 16th consecutive game.
The Explorers (24-4) will next face the last team that beat them and a team that’s become a major obstacle for them and everyone they’ve played for the past year and a half - Stoneman Douglas.
Columbus will take on Eagles (26-0), who are ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps and own the country’s longest active winning streak with 48 victories in a row, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Douglas. The Eagles comfortably defeated Taravella 13-3 in six innings on Saturday in their regional semifinal.
The Explorers have lost to the Eagles in each of their past three postseason encounters including the 2021 state semifinals and last year’s regional final.
Columbus, however, gave Douglas one of its toughest challenges this season before losing 8-6 on March 24 at the Explorers’ home field. It was the only game this season that the Eagles allowed more than three runs.
“They’ve ended our season before and we know they’re great,” Columbus coach Joe Weber said. “We have to play great baseball just to even hang with them and last year we made three crucial errors that hurt us. Any time you play quality teams like them, you have to play flawless and they’re No. 1 for a reason.”
The Explorers gave Vazquez run support immediately on Saturday, scoring four in the first to take control. Frank Francisco had an RBI single, Jose Correa followed with an RBI double and Lester Martinez delivered the big blow in the inning with a two-run double. Martinez drove in a third run on an infield single in the third. Jovan Swasey and Santiago Carriles each also had an RBI.
West Broward (17-9) finished a solid turnaround season which saw the Bobcats advance to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2016.
