Spring sports close out regular season, softball and baseball enter district playoffs

With the end of the school year approaching the end of the various spring sports seasons are also upon us as many teams here at Western have finished their seasons or are now entering the playoffs and trying to make a run at a state championship for the 2021-22 school year.

Starting with boys lacrosse, the team went 11-7 during the regular season and was able to secure a district semi-final win against Cypress Bay before losing in the district championship against St. Thomas Aquinas. Normally this would have been where the season ended but due to a new rule issued by the FHSAA allowing for 4 at-large bids to the regional playoff tournament the boys lacrosse team was able to keep playing and go on to defeat Boca High in the Regional Quarterfinal before falling to St. Thomas Aquinas in the semifinal to end their season.

“I am very excited because we haven’t gotten this far in the playoffs since I was a freshman and I’m excited to see if my senior year could be the year we go all the way,” senior captain David Parrish said before the Boca High Game. 

Girls lacrosse was able to post an impressive 13-4 regular season record where they were also able to put together two 4-game win streaks throughout the season and, like the boys team, won the district semi-final game against Cypress Bay but fell to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Championship game. In the regional quarterfinal the girls team had to face off against St. Thomas Aquinas for a third time and after a crushing defeat they wrapped up their season.

“We have had a very strong season and I’m glad that we are getting another shot at beating St. Thomas this year because I think that this is the team that could do it,” junior Zoe Savostinsky said before the regional quarterfinal.

The boys baseball team finished the regular season with a record of 19-5 just one win short of a 20 win regular season and have been having early success in the playoffs. They defeated Cypress Bay in their first playoff game and were then able to defeat Flanagan and bring home a district championship. After that crucial win they were able to defeat Southwest at home 9-3 which has set them up to play Columbus tomorrow in the regional semi-final.

“We have had a really strong season and have won most of the games that we believed we should have from the start and have only lost tight games to some of the strongest teams in the state so I have a lot of confidence that we can make a deep playoff run the year,” senior Carlos D’Amato added.

Staying out on the diamond, the softball team is also having a strong year with a regular season that ended with a record of 12-7-1. They have had a very exciting season including two games that went into at least 8XI and they were able to pull off some crushing wins where they blew out opponents by large score margins. After winning their district semi-final they faced off against West Broward in the district championship and lost a close game 2-0. As they were ranked high enough in the region to earn an at-large bid they are now gearing up to face Coleman this Thursday in the regional quarterfinal.

“The team this year is doing great and we are all having a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get to play some serious playoff softball,” freshman Kennedy Butter said.

The boys volleyball team also had a strong season that just recently ended after back to back playoff losses to St. Thomas Aquinas and South Broward. The team ended the season with a record of 11-8 after they were able to comeback from a rough start to the season and mount an astonishing 9 game win streak to round off the end of their regular season.

“We won our first game but then went on a huge losing streak but we were able to rally together and put together a string of wins at the end and we all feel good about the playoffs,” junior Cole Esterline said before entering the playoffs.

The boys tennis team had some tough losses which left them ending their season sitting at 2-5. The girls team had similar results ending 2-5 as well. “We had high hopes coming into the season but sadly we weren’t able to put all the pieces together for a few of the matches which led to some close losses but we did put on some strong performances and overall I’m happy with this year,” junior Lucas Osber said.

Last but not least is the track and field team who have seen some strong results this year in many of their meets and are looking forward to competing in the playoffs this year. 

“We have had a strong season and I’m very prepared to compete in the next leg of the season and have a strong showing in the playoffs,” junior captain Mistiann Verdier said.