West Broward Uses Big Inning To Get Past Cypress Bay In 8A-12

West Broward used a six-run third inning to take an 11-3 win over host Cypress Bay on Wednesday and advance to the District 12-8A championship.

The Bobcats had to claw their way back after allowing the Lightning to strike for a pair of runs in the top of the third to tie the game at two.

Danny Pardo singled and scored on Mark McGinnity’s base hit to give West Broward an early lead. The Bobcats tacked on another run in the second as Cody Newell singled and came home on Gio Ruiz’s base hit.

Cypress Bay (9-11) scored two to tie it in the top of the third. Jacob Ehrlich walked and scored when Casey Chayet hit into a fielder’s choice. Chayet came home when West Broward starting pitcher Tyler Draughon balked.

West Broward (18-3) promptly retook the lead in the bottom of the inning. Mark Hadley was hit by a pitch to get on base and scored on a double by Pardo, who came home on an error. Xavier Beltran singled and scored on an error that allowed McGinnity to reach second after he singled. McGinnity scored on Cody Swavely’s double, and Cody Newell drove in Russell Young. Newell added the final run of the inning.

West Broward tacked on three in the fifth to pad its lead. Sammy Green, Chase Hay-Eldon and Ruiz scored in that inning.

Draughon said he effectively used his fastball and then his curve ball to stymie the Lightning.

“I noticed the wind was blowing toward the outside, so I was trying to spot it on the outside and hopefully it moved it away, and they were chasing it. I just kept using it and using it, and as soon as they got it, then I changed up to my curve ball.”

West Broward coach Sergio Ambros said West Broward wanted to avoid giving Cypress Bay any chance of upsetting them Wednesday.

“We’ve been preaching for 12 days since our last game that it’s hard to beat a team three times, so their season would have been made by beating us, so we had that in mind that we could not let them get into that mode, and once they got two, it gave them a little momentum, but we answered right back with four runs in that inning and at that point just went on cruise control.”

Cypress Bay coach Mike White said the Lightning gave starter Jeremy Tache a chance to give them some success against the Bobcats, but the junior wasn’t able to hold West Broward back.

“We played them twice and they hadn’t seen Jeremy pitch yet,” White said. “We always had to pitch him the game before that. And he’s pitched well at times, and he just didn’t have his best stuff because he’s capable of keeping any kid in the county down. He just didn’t have his A game today, and when that wasn’t working for us, we were in a little bit of trouble because we haven’t matched up too well with them with our other pitchers, so we were a little disappointed Jeremy didn’t come out and have his best game this day.”

But White is optimistic about the future of the Lightning program.

“We had four seniors and they all played well this year for this, but the majority of our team is very young, so that’s what we’re going to focus in over the summer is taking those young kids and making them better. We started three sophomores, and hopefully those sophomores will be better next year.”

Meanwhile, West Broward is looking forward to Friday’s district final against Flanagan, and Ambros is confident his team can give Flanagan a better game this time.

“I thought despite us losing, despite their pitcher Mesa no-hitting us the last time they played us, it was a 5-1 game and we had the bases loaded with two outs and we’re one hit away from making it an interesting game and we put some balls in play, so we obviously improved from the last time we played them when it was 9-0. So we think we’re making strides in the right direction and hopefully those two games have taught us something of how to make our approaches and adjustments toward him. Obviously, he’s an outstanding pitcher, so we have to capitalize when we have the opportunities.”

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