McGinnity’s Four RBI Power West Broward To 10-2 Win Over Western

Pitching. Defense. Base-running. Hitting. When those four areas all come together for a baseball team, the result is what happened last night at Western High School. The visiting West Broward Bobcats were dominant in all aspects of the game, cruising to a 10-2 win over District 8A-12 rival Western.

The elements of a good baseball team were all on display in the first inning for the Bobcats. In their half of the inning, Mike Mordente led off the game by blasting the first pitch he saw down the left field line for a double. Danny Pardo followed with an RBI single, and when Mark McGinnity connected on a two-run homer to left, the Bobcats had taken a 3-0 lead before an out was recorded in the game.

“I saw that he (Western starter Austin Read) was overthrowing his fastball the pitch before,” McGinnity said. “I knew he was going to come back with a slow change-up. He put it right in my wheelhouse, and I took care of it. Every day coach Ambros has us in the cage working on something fundamentally, and I’ve been working hard for a long time. Tonight it paid off.”

In the bottom of the first, Western threatened to return the scoring favor after lead-off hitter Tyler Fichter and three-hole hitter Max Balter singled. The Wildcats looked as if they would score when Tyler Handt hit a ball deep in the hole at short. Mordente, however, foiled the scoring chance by making an incredible play, throwing Handt out at first.

“There’s not a game that goes by that Mike doesn’t make a play for us that sparks us and gets us going,” West Broward head coach Sergio Ambros said. “Especially tonight in that first inning when he came up with that big play in the hole. If we don’t get that out, the game could have been 3-2, but Mike comes up and makes an outstanding play backhanded and throws the guy out at first by a step. That’s Mike. He’ll make one of those plays every game.”

West Broward had not only the offense and defense going Tuesday night, but also its pitching. Starter Alex Zapata gave up only two runs in six and a third innings. He had the Wildcats’ batters off balance all night, and when he needed to come up with a big pitch to get out of a jam, he came up big.

“Today I was on top of my game,” Zapata said. “I threw a lot of pitches, but I was pitching to contact. I wanted to let them put the ball in play because I know my defense has my back, and tonight, they did.”

The Bobcats have not had much of an opportunity to play competitive baseball so far this year, feasting early on teams with a combined 11-31 record coming into their game with Western. With this being their first real test, the team played perhaps its most complete game of the season.

McGinnity was the offensive star of the night, going 3-for-3 with a double, home run, four RBI and three runs. Pardo added two hits for West Broward, and Mordente scored two runs. The Bobcats increased their record to 7-0, and their next test will be a big one. The Bobcats face district rival Flanagan on Friday afternoon with the district lead at stake, but Ambros wants to keep the focus on all games being equal.

“Our approach is how we approach everything. It’s just the next game on the schedule. This was game number seven, that’s (Flanagan) game number eight. To us, it’s just the next game, and after game number eight, we’ll have game number nine. The opponent doesn’t matter to us. No disrespect, because we respect the heck out of Flanagan, but it’s just the next game on the schedule to us. If we make it any bigger than that, then we can lose the focus on what our goal is each time we step on the field.”

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