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Alonso never had any doubts about outcome

Photo by SCOTT PURKS

Winning pitcher Jose Fernandez leaps onto his teammates as they celebrate their title victory.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 24, 2009

Updated: 05/24/2009 10:14 am

PORT ST. LUCIE - We'd love to call this a fairy tale. We'd love to say that describes Alonso High School's first state baseball championship. There's just one problem, according to Alonso sophomore third baseman Matt Brandy.

"It happened," he said. "It really happened."

The championship-winning run was made by a courtesy runner who hadn't had a hit all year. His name is Eddy Williams (nickname: Nook). He's a receiver who came over from football in the middle of baseball season. You ain't heard nothin' yet.

"Jose came farther," Eddy said.

That would be winning pitcher Jose Fernandez, who came over from ... Cuba.

A little more than a year ago, Fernandez, his mother and sister were on a boat trying to escape Castro. Mom fell overboard at one point. Jose jumped in and saved her. She and the rest of the Fernandez family were in the stands Saturday night as Jose and his Ravens beat Miami Columbus 4-3 at Tradition Field.

"I feel like a very, very lucky person," sophomore Fernandez said as Alonso assistant coach Pete Toledo translated. He was nervous in the first inning and nervous in the last inning. In between, he mowed down 18 consecutive Columbus batters. "To come from Cuba a year ago and be pitching in a championship game it's not something anybody does, but God helped me."

Nobody did it like these Ravens.

For one thing, they did it without their best pitcher, senior Ray Delphey, who went down with a knee injury in the middle of the season. The day after, the Ravens made their decision.

"We were going to win this thing," said Alonso senior catcher Adam Pendleton, who got the sixth-inning single that set Nook loose on the base paths. "We never doubted each other."

They never doubted when they went ahead 2-0 in the top of the first, and they never doubted when Fernandez allowed three runs in the bottom of the inning, including one that came in on a balk. A batter he hit came home, too.

They never doubted as they came away scoreless in the second, third and fourth innings, as it stayed Columbus 3-2. The Ravens didn't even doubt with two outs in the fifth. Junior first baseman Casey Smit rapped his second long double, and on a 3-1 pitch Brandy lined a double to left to bring him home and tie it at 3.

They didn't doubt as Fernandez turned in five perfect innings after his shaky first. There was only one thing left to do. So Pendleton lined one up the middle for a single to start the sixth. He looked to the dugout. "I knew Nook would be coming in," he said.

Eddy Williams' grandmother nicknamed him Nook. He isn't even sure what it means. It might as well mean "fast."

He scored six touchdowns last season for the Alonso football team. He has a scholarship to Toledo in the fall. He says he runs a 4.3 in the 40-yard dash. Sure, why not. He batted six times in baseball with no hits.

But he hopped on first base Saturday, and the next thing, he stole second. Then he stole third. Then he dared the Columbus catcher to throw down and get him, and throw he did. The ball sailed into left field. Nook came home.

"This is the biggest thing I ever scored," he said.

Jose Fernandez took the mound in the bottom of the seventh. You looked at his folks (his dad fled Cuba first) and his sister and back out at him and remembered it was Memorial Day weekend, a time for Americans whose devotion we can't ever truly measure, who fought for the very freedom that made Jose Fernandez and his family come here.

Try to make up a story like this. Just try.

Fernandez didn't pitch a complete game. He got two quick outs, but gave up a single and hit a batter. But this was Alonso and this was Alonso's season, so Coach Landy Faedo took the ball from Fernandez and handed it to senior Jordan Huchro, who finished it, a ground ball to first baseman Smit, who tossed to Huchro. Big pile near first.

It wasn't a fairy tale. It happened. Ask the Ravens. Ask them 30 years from now.

"This was our season," Adam Pendleton said.

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