Monarch Wins Third-Place Game Of Titan Classic 4-2 Over Fort Lauderdale

The Monarch Knights and Fort Lauderdale Flying L’s have been two of Broward’s surprise teams so far this season. On Tuesday, the teams squared off in the third-place game of the Titans Classic.

Monarch scored three runs in the first two innings of the game and then held on late to claim a 4-2 victory and the third-place prize in the spring break tournament. Andrew Rohloff was the winning pitcher for the Knights, throwing five innings of one-run ball.

“I was struggling a little bit today, and I kept putting runners on base,” Rohloff said, “but I was able to make a big pitch here and there and work out of the jams. The defense also played well behind me.”

Monarch came into the tournament with a perfect record, but its undefeated season ended Monday with a 9-1 loss to number two Nova. The Knights responded to that loss well early on Tuesday when they put up a run in the first inning. Josh Mila keyed the inning with an RBI double to left, scoring Bobby Jakubek.

In the second, Monarch struck again off Fort Lauderdale starter Alex Honner. A single by Rohloff and a double by sophomore Nick Sposa helped the Knights extend their lead to 3-0 by the end of the inning.

Fort Lauderdale had its chances to get back in the game, with runners on base in every inning. Twice the Flying L’s left the bases loaded, and in the first and second innings, Fort Lauderdale left two men on. In all, the Flying L’s left 13 runners on base. Couple that with a couple of defensive miscues, and head coach Terry Portice knows that is no recipe for success against good teams.

“I don’t think we hit a ball hard today,” Portice said. “We had a ton of opportunities this afternoon, had plenty of baserunners, but we couldn’t come up with that big hit. Against good teams, we’ve got to do a better job of hitting the ball on a line or on the ground. We just didn’t execute.”

Although Monarch comes out of the tournament with a 10-1 record and already has wrapped up the top seed in its district tournament, head coach Nick Franco said there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“Some of the biggest improvements we need to make have to deal with the offense. Our pitching has been very good, and we just need to have some better at-bats. If we do that, we’ll be fine. I’m happy with how the boys have been playing.”

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