Former reserve seizes opportunity, lifts Columbus to walk-off win, GMAC baseball title

With a senior-laden squad, it hasn’t been easy for junior infielder Evan Escobar to crack the Columbus baseball team’s starting lineup.

But it hasn’t been for a lack of talent or faith from his coaches that he could come through in an important situation.

On Thursday night, Escobar seized the opportunity when it presented itself in the bottom of the eighth inning of a tie game against Varela.

Escobar smoked a fastball from Vipers reliever Christopher Lussier off the wall in left field to score pinch runner Alec Cruz from second base and deliver a 5-4 walk-off win for the Explorers and the 2023 GMAC baseball championship on their home field.

“I’ve been waiting a while for my turn and the time came,” said Escobar, who was 0 for 2 until his big hit in the eighth. “I was just expecting a fastball and just reacted.”

Timely hitting like that is a big part of the reason Columbus (18-4) is picking up momentum with the postseason a little over a week away.

The other has been the solid pitching of starter Gabe Cruz, the Miami Herald’s 7A-6A Pitcher of rhe Year last season who is 6-0 this season. Cruz struck out seven and walked two with all three of his runs unearned thanks to an error and a couple of wild pitches.

The Explorers have won 10 consecutive games and face West Broward, Hialeah Educational and South Dade this coming week before the district tournaments begin. The game against West Broward, in particular, could prove crucial as it could determine the No. 2 seed in Region 4-7A behind unbeaten national powerhouse Stoneman Douglas and therefore allow that team to not have to face the Eagles until the regional finals.

But Columbus, which scored more runs than anyone has so far against Douglas this season during an 8-6 loss on March 24, remains confident it can make a run to state.

“I feel like we’re very electric and have a lot of energy right now and we’re just looking to make it to states,” Escobar said.

The Explorers had been waiting for such a timely hit for most of the game after leaving several runners on base including two in the bottom of the seventh.

Lester Martinez’s one-out single got things going for the Explorers in the eighth. Jovan Swasey was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second, setting up Escobar’s heroics.

Columbus coach Joe Weber said Escobar recently earned more playing time after starting second baseman Zahir Barjam suffered an injury.

“He came up clutch and we had been waiting for a big hit for a while. He stayed with it,” Weber said as fought back tears while speaking about Escobar. “I was telling him in the huddle I’m super proud of him because he’s a really talented junior player and the opportunity this year with a senior-laden team with guys that have done really well ahead of him hasn’t given him a lot of opportunities to play.

“He was patient and did all the right things. When you see a kid do that and do all the right things, it feels great.”

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Varela (14-2-1), which made its first ever appearance in a GMAC final and is in the midst of a turnaround season. The Vipers currently lead District 16-6A - a district that includes reigning state champion Doral Academy.

Columbus opened the game with a solo home run from Carlos Jacome before Varela answered with two runs in the top of the second. Nicholas Padron hit a ball off Explorers starter Gabe Cruz’s leg and reached base after Cruz ran over to the third base line, fielded the ball and attempted to throw across his body to first. The ball got away allowing Juan Concepcion and Simon Molina to score. Amaury De Jesus walked in the fifth inning and came around to score on a passed ball to give the Vipers a 3-1 edge.

But some errant pitching by Lussier, who entered in relief of starter Isaiah Espinosa, allowed the Explorers to score twice on wild pitches and once on a passed ball to take the lead 4-3.

Varela loaded the bases in the sixth, but Columbus reliever Julian Gonzalez limited the damage by inducing Nicholas Machado to hit into a double play with no outs, tying the game at 4.