Flanagan Flexes Muscle In 14-4 Romp Over St. Thomas

If the Flanagan Falcons were going to have any type of hangover from a state championship season last night, it did not show in the teams opening game of 2011. The Falcons used timely long balls to defeat St. Thomas 14-4 i five innings Monday.

Early on, it looked as though the two teams would battle tooth and nail throughout the game. Flanagan scored three runs in the first off St. Thomas starter Alec Byrd. St. Thomas then battled back with three runs of their own in the second inning. Matthew Beauchemin hit two batters and walked two more. Head Coach Ray Evans immediately went to the bullpen.

Relief pitcher Mike Emigh struck out Andrew Hernandez with the bases loaded for the first out. Lead-off hitter Enrique Finol then hit a flair to center field. Not knowing whether the ball would drop, St. Thomas players hesitated on the bases. The center fielder threw home, but was unsuccessful in completing the force play.

Catcher Zach Collins threw the ball to third and forced out the raiders runner who has delayed from second. As that was happening, Finol sped for second. Third baseman Andres Sanchez then threw to first baseman Michael Melendez, who tagged Finol out. In the score book, it went down as an 8-2-5-3 double play, and the falcons escaped further damage.

From there, Flanagan’s bats woke up, with home runs from Ricky Santiago and Sanchez in the third, and Ryan Lozada in the fifth. Flanagan scored eleven runs in the last three innings of the game.

Despite Beauchemin’s struggles on the mound, the DH/P was able to separate offense from pitching. The senior went 4-4 at the plate, and added a stolen base. Coach Evans understands that there must be a mental toughness if this Falcons team is going to get back to championship form.

“He’ll separate it,” Evans said of Beauchemin’s performance on the mound and at the plate. “He had a great night. It’s two different parts of the game, and if he’s not going to do it there (pointing to the mound), then he needs to do it there (pointing at the plate). We tell our guys, help us one way or another, and tonight he did that.”

Although the Falcons players felt good after the win over St. Thomas, Coach Evans knows that they must be must better on the mound if they are going to win this tournament and have aspirations of playing for another state title.

When asked what his team could improve moving forward, Coach Evans was immediate in his response.

“Starting pitching. Our starting pitching in the preseason was not very good, and right now in the first game it wasn’t very good. We had to go into our bullpen way to early tonight.”

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