Chatham, Monaghan Lead Nova Past Cooper City In District Clash

One swing of the bat ended up being the game.

Senior pitchers Michael Klement of Cooper City and Trent Monaghan of Nova matched scoreless innings in the opening four innings by keeping hitters at bay and watching their teammates make sound defensive plays.

But it was junior C.J. Chatham who delivered the difference on a towering three-run home run to left-center to propel the Titans a 3-1 victory over the Cowboys at Pat McQuaid Field in a District 7A-16 game Friday. Chatham got his chance after two straight two-out errors by the Cowboys.

“Once I saw them bobble the second one, I knew I was getting a chance,” said Chatham. “I had a feeling he was going to come with a curve, because my last two at-bats I really struggled with it. So I knew he was going to throw it, and I just waited on it, and hit it well. Luckily it went out.”

Both pitchers made it difficult for the opposing team with great helping hands from the field.

Klement demonstrated grit by working out of jams in the second, third and fourth innings. The Titans had their chances in each of those innings, stranding two runners in each frame.

In the second, Klement helped himself by coming up with a strikeout to end a runners-on-first-and-third threat. In the third inning, Nova put runners on first and second, but a perfect throw from center-fielder Chris Beaton to home plate erased Lee Kinzel. In the fourth, a routine line drive to center was turned into a double play when the Nova base-runner broke for home on contact.

On the mound for the Titans, Monaghan cruised through and got 17 sound plays from his fielders.

Monaghan (3-0), a senior left-hander and Air Force signee, stayed in command by going a complete game on 74 pitches and allowed just one run on one hit.

“Trent did a good job,” McQuaid said. “They only had four runners the whole game and we turned a big double play in the sixth inning. Any time you have to field 17 balls, you better do a good job. I was very proud of the way we fielded and came back. Trent beat a quality opponent tonight.”

Interestingly, it was Klement who was staked a 1-0 lead in the middle of the fifth inning after an error and a base hit by designated hitter Kevin Couvillon.

With Nova aching to deliver a big hit after stranding several runners on base, their moment arrived in the bottom half of the inning. The Titans answered back when with two outs Monaghan and Matt Zanis reached base on some hardly hit balls.

“That home run got our momentum back,” said Monaghan, who also acknowledged his team has some cleaning up to do before next week. “We need to do better on the bases. I think we are solid everywhere else, but our base-running definitely needs work.”

Nova’s win moved the Titans ahead of St. Thomas Aquinas in the district standings. The Raiders fell to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in district play after losing to South Broward on Friday. The Titans improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the district

Nova, coming off a 20-3 season in which it won a district championship before losing in the regional quarterfinals to Wellington, showed the poise of a team with that sort of caliber by never relenting from applying pressure on the Cowboys. Cooper City is one of Nova’s oldest rivals, and McQuaid pointed out to his team before the game that the Cowboys will be ready for the rivalry game.

If there’s one thing McQuaid loves to see from his players, it’s an ability to refuse to give up. It was the first time that Nova had trailed all season.

At the beginning of the season, Cooper City baseball coach Chris Hinely stressed that he needed his pitchers to find the strike zone on a more consistent basis and not give away games. At the very core for the possibility of success, he needed his pitchers to make opposing teams earn it. Friday night, his team showed that they had the capabilities of playing with the best in their district.

“Michael pitched a heck of a game,” said Hinely. “It stinks coming up on the losing end in this one, but our guys came away knowing we can compete with anyone in our district and anyone in the county.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!