Flanagan Secures Top Seed In District 12-6A Win Over West Broward

The last time the Flanagan Falcons took the field against West Broward, the Bobcats handed the Falcons their first district loss of the season. As it turns out, that would be the only district blemish on Flanagan’s record this season.

On Thursday afternoon, the Falcons avenged the earlier defeat at the hands of the Bobcats, with a wild 9-7, three and a half hour affair.

Flanagan jumped out to a lead in the first when they picked up three runs. Ricky Santiago started the inning with a double. After a fly out to right, starting pitcher Mike Melendez singled, and Santiago scored on a throwing error. One out later, Andres Sanchez hit his county leading twelfth homer of the season.

At this point, it felt as though Flanagan was out to prove a point that they were still the team to beat in the district, but the Bobcats, as they have done several times in the past few years against the Falcons, fought back.

Gio Ruiz singled, and Erik Gonzalez doubled in the third. Designated hitter Cody Swavely then singled home Ruiz. An infield hit by Mike Mordente later cut the Flanagan lead to 3-2.

Each time the Bobcats cut the lead, the Falcons offense answered. On a day when the defense and pitching was not where it has been for much of the year, the offense carried the team. Three hits and a sacrifice fly in the third, upped the visitor’s lead to 6-2.

In the bottom of the third, Ruiz had his second big hit of the game, an RBI triple. Gonzalez followed with a single, driving in Ruiz. Melendez worked out of the jam striking out Swavely looking and Sammy Green swinging to end the inning.

After the team’s exchanged two-run innings in the fourth, the game went to the sixth with an 8-6 Flanagan lead. Danny Zardon provided, perhaps, the clutch at-bat of the game when he drove a Tyler Draughon pitch out of the park. The home run gave Flanagan an insurance run heading into the late innings.

“I wanted to work the opposite field gap,” said Zardon. “It was a full count, and I was just looking for a pitch to drive.”

Jose Mesa Jr. came in to the game in the fourth, and closed the door on a Bobcat rally. Mesa Jr. continued to throw well until the seventh, when he ran into a jam.

Swavely led off the home seventh with a walk. A single placed runners on first and second and brought the tying run to the plate. Inexplicably, Swavely was picked off second for the first out of the inning. Pinch hitter Danny Pardo then doubled to left, again bringing up the tying run for the Bobcats.

A walk by Mordente loaded the bases. Robert Collin relieved Mesa Jr., and Mike Hoeft hit an RBI single, closing the gap to 9-7. Unfortunately for the Bobcats, their second out of the inning was made on the bases when Zardon threw out a West Broward runner at home. After another walk, Luigi Perez struck out to end the Bobcats rally and the game.

“We’ve had some ups and downs all year,” said West Broward Head Coach Mike Moss. “Today we got our heart back…we played with intensity, we played hard, so I can live with that. We’ll correct the mistakes and go from there.”

On the other side of the field, Falcons Head Coach Ray Evans was anything but pleased with the victory. For a team that has state championship aspirations, Evans knows that his team must perform much better than they did Thursday if they have any chance of defending their state title.

“We had a couple of innings that we threw well, but other than that, we were not very good today,” said Evans. “We had some big hits, Andres (Sanchez) gets a big hit, Zardon gets a big hit, Zach (Collins) gets a big hit, we had some big hits, but defensively, and on the hill, we were not very good.”

Luckily for Flanagan less than their best on this day was good enough to wrap up the number one seed in the district. West Broward will be the two seed heading into the playoffs, and both teams will be looking to win their opening round match ups and advance to the regional tournament.

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