Travieso Fans 10 In Mavericks 2-0 District Win Over Flying L’s

The Archbishop McCarthy Mavericks are not used to playing nail-biters within their district. Over the past couple of years, the majority of the Mavericks challenges have come from outside the district. Late last year, however, Fort Lauderdale put up a fight in the district championship game, and on Tuesday night, the Flying L’s were again up for the challenge.

Unfortunately for Fort Lauderdale, they were facing a pitcher with a high motivation level. Nick Travieso has been asking his coaching staff for a start, and last night he received his wish. The result was five innings of a masterful mound performance. Travieso held the Flying L’s to just one hit, and the Archbishop offense did just enough to scrape together a 2-0 District 6A-15 win.

“Nick’s been dying to start,” said Mavericks head coach Rich Bielski. “He got his opportunity tonight, and he was fired up for that. He came out throwing strikes, and did everything we expected him to do. He dominated. He’s certainly showing that he has some tremendous talent he’s going to take to the next level, and we’re very proud of him.”

Travieso was not the only pitcher who brought his “A” game in the district match-up. Fort Lauderdale’s Brad Smith matched Travieso nearly pitch for pitch the entire night. Smith allowed a first-inning home run to Nick Basto and then gave up only one earned run over his next five innings of work. The pitchers’ duel was one that the coaches expected coming into this one.

“He is our go-to guy on the mound,” said Flying L’s head coach Terry Portice. “He came out tonight, and he pitched his fanny off. I got what I expected from him. I expected him to come out and give them a heck of a ball game and make them work to score runs, and he did. He was outstanding.”

Offensively, Fort Lauderdale had their chance to tie the game in the fifth. Matthew Gibson reached base on an error to lead off the inning, and that was followed by a Smith walk. After a strikeout, Gibson and pinch-runner Matthew Freeman successfully stole second and third. Travieso, facing his first real jam, responded by striking out the final two Fort Lauderdale hitters to end the threat. Travieso then pitched a perfect fifth before turning the game over to Andre Martinez and Brian Gonzalez to close the game in the sixth and seventh inning, respectively. Travieso spoke respectfully about the game Flying L’s team on this evening.

“They have a great team, and they always give us a battle every year,” Travieso said. “They always find a way to be crafty, whether it’s on defense or at the plate. They use a lot of small ball, and that always allows them to stay in the game. I give them a lot of credit for the way they played tonight.”

Bielski echoed the sentiments of his star pitcher, while also giving credit to Portice.

“I can definitely see why they were 4-0 coming in,” said Bielski. “They were scrappy. They played hard. They didn’t come in and lay down by any means. Every inning, they put up some kind of threat. They are going to surprise some people. Terry does an amazing job every year. Year in and year out, he has his teams prepared.”

Although moral victories are nice, Portice and his Flying L’s team came into the game with only one goal: to remain undefeated.

“This is going to help us. We came in expecting to win a ballgame,” Portice said. “We didn’t, but we played some pretty good baseball tonight. I think they responded well to the challenge, and when we face another great team like we did here tonight, we’ll come in prepared again. We just need to execute a little better on our end.”

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