Spera Fans 10 As Hayfield Defeats Washington-Lee

Hayfield coaches informed Cory Spera on Friday that he would be pitching in Saturday’s National District semifinal game against Washington-Lee. Spera, as expected, was elated to hear the news.

However, there was one small problem. Hayfield High School’s senior prom was being held the night before the game and Spera had every inention of attending.

“The coaches were nice enough to let me know that I was going to be throwing today so it wasn’t a surprise when I got to the ballpark. I told everyone early last night that I was going to go home early so it wasn’t a problem,” said Spera with a laugh.

With the prom in the rearview mirror, the senior members of Hayfield’s team moved one step closer to winning the school’s second district championship in 43 years. Behind Spera’s arm, the Hawks defeated Washington-Lee 7-1 Saturday afternoon at Hayfield High School.

Cutting prom evening short to get a solid “eight and a half hours” of sleep, Spera took the mound looking to keep his undefeated pitching record intact. After hitting Washington-Lee’s Austin Evans with a pitch on the first play of the game, Spera settled down and delivered a 10-strikeout, 1-earned run performance.

“With at least half the team coming off of prom last night, we [coaches] were obviously a little worried. They realized that we had a quality opponent and they got up for them. I’m really proud of the way they played,” said Hayfield head coach Jimmy Linza.

Hayfield got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning. Daniel Vega began the inning off with a single and stole a base shortly thereafter before ending up on third. Following Brad Johnson’s fly out, Eamonn Eshman singled, to knock Vega in and give Hayfield a 1-0 lead.

Washington-Lee would score their only run of the game in the fourth inning. Ryan Dickt started the inning with a walk from Spera and was advanced to third before being knocked in on a Matt Brower single. The run would be their last.

While Spera received run support in a collective effort by all Hayfield’s batters, Brad Johnson and Bryan DiRosario added a little extra pop to the lineup.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Johnson connected on a 330-foot home run to deep left center. Johnson's home run knocked in pinch runner Robert Banks and put Hayfield up 3-1.

Not to be outdone by Johnson, DiRosario blasted a solo sixth inning 350-foot homer which sailed over the center field wall.

In just his second season at the helm, Linza is on the verge of capturing his first district title as head coach. When asked what the chance to play for the National District title meant to the team, Linza said,

“Our seniors have been working hard for this for longer than I’ve been here. It’s something that we’ve been pointing to since the beginning of the season.”

For Spera, “Speaking for the senior players on the team, today’s win rooted back to their freshman year on the varsity team.

“It felt really, really good [to win today]. It feels awesome,” said Spera. “To go from winning two or three games a year our freshman year to setting a school record for wins (19) this year feels really satisfying.”

Hayfield plays on Monday in the National District championship at Yorktown at 6 p.m.