West Broward Remains Unbeaten In District 12-6A With 4-1 Win Over Western

West Broward’s Marc Hadley went five solid innings last night in picking up his first varsity win, 4-1 over a stubborn and gritty Western team.

After two and a half scoreless innings, Western got on the board first when their sophomore shortstop, Max Balter was hit by a pitch. The speedy Balter then stole second, advanced to third on Tyler Fichter’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Mike Hoeft’s RBI ground out to first, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead after three innings complete.

West Broward’s clean-up hitter, Luigi Perez opened the fourth with a sharp single to left. He promptly stole second and scored on Gio Ruiz’ two-base hit over Fichter’s head in center field, knotting the score at one apiece.

Bobcats Head Coach Mike Moss felt that, “Gio’s RBI double really helped get us going.”

Designated hitter Evan Stocker opened the Bobcats fifth with a base on balls. It appeared that he might have strayed too far off first, however, an errant pick-off attempt allowed him to reach second. Stocker then advanced to third on a ground out and came home on on Mike Hoeft RBI hit to the right side. Stocker’s run gave West Broward a 2-1 lead, one which they never relinquished.

By this time Hadley had settled into a comfortable groove, retiring the Wildcats in order in both the fourth and fifth innings.

Three sixth inning walks, another botched pick-off attempt, and a wild pitch allowed the Bobcats to increase their lead to 4-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

At this point, Coach Moss went to his bullpen and brought in Tyler Draughon to close things out. Western’s clean-up hitter, Russell Hackworth sliced a one-out double down the right field line. He was held at third when Hebert Quintana singled sharply thru the box. Both runners were stranded when Draughon easily retired the next two batters.

“That’s been the story of our season,” said Wildcats Head Coach Sonny Hansley. “We’ve been getting guys on, but just haven’t been able to produce in those situations.”

When lead-off batter Mike Mordente drilled a sharp single to left opening the top of the seventh, coach Hansley brought in Zach Brown to replace his starter Ben Katz. Katz had tossed six plus innings, allowing just three earned runs on eight hits.

“Ben did an outstanding job for us tonight,” said coach Hansley. “He told me before the game, he’d give me everything he’s got, and he did. He’s not overpowering but he’s smart and he’s are around the plate. He had them off-stride.”

Even opposing Coach Moss had praise for Katz’s performance.

“He really battled us tonight,” said Moss, “He hung tough. He deserves a lot of credit.”

Brown yielded Mark McGinnity’s third single of the game, but escaped unharmed when he picked-off a runner and got Perez on a fly out to right.

A last inning Western rally was cut short when Doug Futch, who had already singled twice, was erased on the back end of a 4-6-3 double play to end the district match-up.

When asked to comment on his team’s success, coach Moss had this to say.

“It wasn’t particularly pretty, but at least the pitchers did a nice job and it was nice to see Hadley pick up his first win. We’ve had a lot of high run games, so it’s nice to see only one run on the board for the other team for a change.”

In picking up his first win, Hadley went five innings, giving up just one run on three hits while striking out five batters while walking just one. Draughon gets credit for the two-inning save.

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