Lopez’s Sixth-Inning Blast Gives Pines Charter The District 6A-15 Lead

Pembroke Pines Charter’s game Thursday evening with Fort Lauderdale provided Jaguars fans a broad range of emotions when it came to Carlos “Chuckie” Lopez. The senior ace returned to the mound last week after rehabbing from labrum surgery last year. Lopez threw three innings in the Sarasota Classic Spring Break tournament, and Thursday was set to be his full return to the mound.

In the first inning, Lopez struggled with his control, walking five batters and staking the Flying L’s to a 3-0 lead. It was not the walks, however, that started the emotions flowing for Jags fans. Instead, it was a pitch to Fort Lauderdale’s Ryan Romash, where Lopez came up favoring his right arm. It was a scene Jaguar fans had hoped they would not see this season.

“He felt a crack in his elbow,” said PP Charter head coach Carlos Iglesias. “He said it’s happened to him before. When I went to the mound, my pitching coach noticed the warm-up pitch was not his normal delivery, and we had to pull him out. He wanted to stay out there, but I explained that his health had to come first.”

Although Lopez was pulled from the mound, he did convince Iglesias to leave him in the game as a designated hitter, and he rewarded his coach with a game-changing three run homer in the bottom of the sixth to break a 4-4 tie. The home run served as a boost for Lopez, who was emotional after the win.

“I’m not going to lie, after I had to come out of the game, it was really tough,” said Lopez. “The first couple of innings, it was hard to keep my mind in the game because of the injury, but my teammates kept me up, and they wanted to win badly, and I felt like I had to come through. I kind of felt like I was going to come through for them, and when I got a good pitch to hit, luckily I came through.”

Fort Lauderdale had its chances to break open the game early on. In the first inning, it left the bases loaded after scoring their three runs. From there, Jaguars reliever Alejandro Kan held the Flying L’s in check after relieving Lopez. Kan, the eventual winning pitcher, gave up only four hits in five and a third innings of relief work.

“It was hard,” said Kan, of coming into the game on the fly. “But they (coaches) had me warming up, and I had to go to work and come through for Chuckie. Once I got into a rhythm, I felt good. I located my fastball inside, and then I used my curve ball to keep them off balance.”

PP Charter trailed for much of the game, but in the fourth, it finally broke through against Fort Lauderdale starter Brad Smith. Lopez had the big hit in the inning with a two-run single to tie the game at four. On the night, Lopez went 2-for-2 with five RBI. Kevin Daly also added two hits for the Jaguars.

The win ensures that Charter finishes no worse than second in the district for the regular season. It also sets up a winner-take-all match-up next Thursday with Archbishop McCarthy. The Jaguars lead the Mavericks by a half-game in the district, but the winner of next week’s match-up will claim the top spot for the playoffs.

“The top spot is up for grabs,” said Iglesias. “Just having an opportunity to play for the top spot, since day one when we started in the fall, that has been our goal. Now we are in a position that we have that opportunity, we’re going to go out there and take one pitch at a time, and leave everything on the field.”

Fort Lauderdale head coach Terry Portice knows with the loss Thursday, the Flying L’s will be the number three seed going into the playoffs, and he plans on using the rest of the season to prepare his team for districts.

“These last seven games, we’re going to be working on these things that we have to work on to be successful in the playoffs,” said Portice. “This whole season is a preparation for the district tournament, and now we’re getting near the end, and it’s time to make sure we have everything straightened out when that tournament begins.”

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