West Broward Finally Beats Flanagan As Team, Players Get Redemption

The West Broward Bobcats lost regional semifinal games against the Flanagan Falcons in 2010 and 2011, both times ending their season. Many of the players from those teams were in attendance to watch the Bobcats’ last night at Flanagan’s field and West Broward wanted to win this game for them.

This season, the Bobcats lost an intensely fought, 11-inning district championship game to Flanagan, were no-hit by Falcons’ ace Jose Mesa Jr. and also lost to him a third game this season, so they wanted redemption for themselves as well.

“I told my kids at the beginning of the year that all we have to do is beat Flanagan once and that’s the last time we play them,” West Broward head coach Sergio Ambros said after the game, just after getting doused by a celebratory bucket of water. The dousing was celebratory because the Bobcats did just what their first-year coach had told them: beat Flanagan the last game they played them this season 4-3 in an intense nail-biter to the very last out.

West Broward will travel to face Palm Beach Gardens on Friday in a regional final. The winner will move on to the 8A state final four in Port St. Lucie the following week.

In the district championship game, Alex Zapata started on the mound for the Bobcats and threw into the seventh with the lead. Zapata was determined to pitch just as well but wanted to finish the game this time. In the first and second innings, it looked as if Zapata might not achieve his goal.

Mesa Jr., who started on the mound for Flanagan for the fourth time against West Broward this season, only saw three batters in the top half of the first inning. The first pitch from Zapata in the bottom half of the inning was knocked to right field for a double by lead-off batter for Flanagan Andres Visbal. Shortstop Andres Sanchez reached on an error, and Mesa Jr. was intentionally walked to load the bases. Sophomore first baseman Ryan Dodge hit a sacrifice fly to give Flanagan the early 1-0 lead, and in all, Zapata faced seven batters in the inning.

In the top of the second, it was Mesa’s turn to face seven batters. The difference is that West Broward was able to get three of those seven batters to cross the plate, opposed to Flanagan’s one. First baseman Luigi Perez led off the inning with a hit and designated hitter Marc Hadley had an RBI double, but the other two runs came in on errors.

In the top of the third, Zapata got some defensive help from short stop Mike Mordente, who charged a softly hit ball to get the runner just in time at first for the second out of the inning. Just when it looked as if Zapata might get into a groove, Flanagan’s CF Christian Nelson hit a double and Visbal followed with a deep single to the right-field gap that drove in Nelson, bringing the Falcons within a run of tying the game.

But with the score 3-2 going into the third, both pitchers settled down. Zapata held Flanagan hitless in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, and it looked as though he ultimately might reach his initial goal of completing the game for the win.

Mesa had also settled down – until the sixth, when junior Cody Newell pulled a Mesa pitch down the left field line for a double. A wild pitch allowed Newell to get to third and CF Gio Ruiz knocked him in with an infield single. Mesa was replaced later in the inning by freshman phenom Gentry Fortuno who was able to get out of the inning with no further damage done.

Going into the bottom of the seventh, it was 4-2 West Broward and Zapata was zoned in. He got the first batter to ground out to third but again could not retire Visbal, who lined a single up the middle for his third hit of the game. Zapata got the dangerous Andres Sanchez to two strikes but then hit the slugger, putting men on first and second. Zapata then walked catcher Rick Sanchez to load the bases with one out.

Ambros had no choice but to pull the senior, who threw more than 100 pitches on the day and received a standing ovation from the raucous West Broward fans.

“Last time out, I couldn’t finish the game either, and I wanted to finish this one, but it just didn’t work out,” Zapata said after the game, “but I have trust in the other players on my team to get the job done, and I am proud of every one of them for this win — this was a total team effort.”

Closer Matt Hardy was brought in to close the game for West Broward, just as he had been called on in the district championship game, but he was not able to hold the lead for the Bobcats then. So he was another Bobcats player looking to redeem himself.

The first batter he faced was Jose Mesa Jr., who hit a long fly ball to right field. The ball was caught, but a run scored.

After the sac fly, Flanagan was down 4-3 and had two men on base with two outs. Dodge was able to work Hardy for a walk, to once again load the bases for Flanagan, but that is when the fans rallied behind Hardy and he found his confidence and struck out the last batter to end the game.

“I was just thinking about my grandparents who had passed away earlier in the year,” Hardy said after the game, trying to hold back tears of pain mixed with pride.

“I was thinking about my boy Zapata, too” Hardy said when asked about coming into the bases-loaded, season-on-the-line, pressure cooker of a situation. “I blew his game last time, and I was just thinking ‘I am not going to do that again.'”

Alas, he didn’t. Instead he added a save that he will likely remember for the rest of his life.

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