Flying L’s Escape Late Rally By Hurricanes To Win Season Opener

The Fort Lauderdale Flying L’s held off a bottom-of-the-seventh surge by the Northeast Hurricanes to win their season opener on the road 6-5.

Alex De La Cruz started the game for Fort Lauderdale and went three innings, striking out two while giving up two runs on two hits. He was taken out because of his pitch count, giving way to winning pitcher Jason Jeffrey, who threw three innings of scoreless ball before he gave up three runs in the bottom of the seventh. Reliever Ryan Romash closed it out to preserve the win.

Fort Lauderdale’s Kenny Miggins started the game with a single and was moved over by Matt Gibson’s sacrifice bunt. A passed ball and an error by the Hurricanes helped Miggins score the first run of the night. Northeast tied it up in the bottom of the first when shortstop Eduardo Uriarte led off with a walk and was driven in after a couple of back-to-back singles by Ralph Morel and Daniel Swanson.

The Hurricanes added another run in the second to take the lead thanks to a lead-off walk by Angel Laram, who scored after a throwing error on a pick-off attempt and a fielding error by the Flying L’s.

Fort Lauderdale had a big fifth inning that put them on top 5-2. Doubles by Brandon Rodriguez and Kenny Miggins, along with a triple by Brad Smith and a single by Alec Bryant, put the pressure on the Hurricanes on their home turf, but they didn’t give up.

Austin Ligons, the starting pitcher for the Hurricanes, went four and one-third innings and was relieved by Ralph Morel when the L’s were in the middle of their big fifth inning.

The Hurricanes were down by four runs going into the bottom of the seventh and started with the top of their lineup. Uriarte, Morel and Swanson had three consecutive singles to start the big comeback, but Northeast came up one run short of tying the game. Romash came into the game for Fort Lauderdale and got the last two outs with a strikeout and a ground ball to halt the Hurricanes’ rally.

“I thought that we had some big hits in key situations,” Fort Lauderdale coach Terry Portice said. “We struck the ball pretty well.”

Hurricanes coach Kevin Carney identified the things his team needs to improve on.

“We need to do a better job of taking care of the baseball defensively,” Carney said. “We can’t give a team extra outs. I think we improved on our hitting tonight. We need to work on our situational hitting and try not to give up the big inning.”

Hurricanes shortstop Eduardo Uriarte, meanwhile, has confidence in his team.

“I expect us to go all the way to the state championship,” said Uriarte, who added that he wants to keep working to get better and be the best teammate he can be.

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