West Broward: Cool, Calm and Confident

Talk to just a few players on the West Broward team and you’ll get a sense of the wave of confidence spilling across the program following the most successful season in the program’s short history.

Losing 10 seniors, including some of the programs top pitchers, is being viewed as but a bump in the road for a team in which experience will help pave the way for more greatness.

“The good thing about having success is we had enough guys where last year we had 10 juniors as well, so now we have 10 seniors that were juniors last year and got experience and a couple of them were junior pitchers in Matt Hardy and Mark Mendez that pitched quite a bit for us last year, so they got the experience to hopefully lead the staff towards the beginning of the year and hopefully the whole year,” Bobcats mananger Sergio Ambros said.

The Bobcats will have to make do this year without its top pitchers from last year: Tyler Draughon (7-2, 46 strikeouts, 2.30 ERA, 42.2 innings), Alex Zapata (5-0, 31 strikeouts, 2.00 ERA, 42 innings) and Austin Gray (3-2, 28 strikeouts, 3.27 ERA, 25.2 innings).

Ambros said the Bobcats will mainly rely on the pitching of Matt Hardy, Mark Mendez and Ben Feinman. Hardy, who has been recruited by Florida Atlantic and Nova Southeastern, went 2-1 with 24 strikeouts and a 0.86 ERA in 24.1 innings last year, and Mendez went 2-0 with 15 strikeouts and a 0.76 ERA in 18.1 innings. Feinman, who tossed just two innings last season, will be counted on in a relief role this year.

Ambros said Hardy was successful as a closer last year and will “probably step into the one or two spot for us this year. He’s had success over the summer in travel programs such as South Florida Elite Squad, and has faced top-notch competition from around the country, so experience-wise, he’s ahead of the game even though he didn’t get that many varsity innings last year. He did have some success against Flanagan in the relief mode last year both in the regional semifinals and in the district championship game, so he’s a guy we can depend on heavily this year, as well as Mark Mendez, a guy who came up in some big games for us, nondistrict games but he did the ball quite a bit, about 15, 16 innings last year.”

West Broward, which went 20-5 last year, has experience returning all across the diamond. Cody Newell returns at first base, and Luigi Perez, who started at second base last year will move to short stop. Xavier Beltran is another returning infielder.

In the outfield, Danny Pardo returns and will be joined by Coral Springs Charter transfer Christian Khawley, whom Ambros said lives about three blocks from West Broward. Cody Williams and Danny Vasquez are catchers coming back.

Newell said the Bobcats have a spring in their step this year.

“The team’s attitude picks up exactly where last year left off,” he said. “Of course, last year is behind us, but the intensity has picked up, the work ethic has definitely picked up, and I think the determination level has picked up to an exponential level.”

Among the seniors who graduated were big bats such as Mike Mordente (team-leading .408 average, 24 runs, 16 RBI) and Mark McGinity (.338, 24 runs, 23 RBI). But the Bobcats bring back big sticks Pardo (.338 average, 24 runs, 23 RBI) and Newell (.344, 19 runs).

“We have an interesting approach to hitting,” Ambros said. “We’re more of an aggressive type of hitting team. We work on a lot of little things. We changed a couple of things, including adding our new hitting coach, former Flanagan alumni Luis Pinata. He’s a guy that most recently has been in college and also has been in not the Bobcat rivalry because we weren’t around at the time, but he’s well aware of that district and everything that goes about it. He brings a great approach and has been working really hard with my hitters this fall.”

In addition to hitting, the Bobcats have also been working hard to maintain their solid defense.

“Defense is our pride,” Ambros said. “That’s what we pride ourselves on, and despite hitting .305 last year, we stayed in a lot of our games because our defense and our pitching. That’s something we work on every day. We know if we do that, we stay in games and keep the score down and minimize our errors and come up with a couple clutch hits here and there. Defense is number one in our priority all the time.”

To test that defense and help get the team ready for postseason play, Ambros beefed up the team’s schedule this year and has West Broward squaring off against teams such as Coral Springs Charter and Dunwoody, Ga. The Bobcats will compete in the Selective Recruiting Invitational and have asked to match up with American Heritage and Archbishop McCarthy.

West Broward also will try to match up better with Flanagan this year. The Falcons’ Jose Mesa Jr. stifled the Bobcats for no hits in two games last year before West Broward broke through in the third game, taking Flanagan to the limit in a 4-3, 11-inning loss. The Bobcats redeemed themselves and won when it mattered most, beating Flanagan 4-3 in the regional semifinal. West Broward fell in the regional final to Palm Beach Gardens.

“[The players] know they can compete now,” Ambros said. “The only thing they remind each other about is they haven’t accomplished anything. They have goals still to set as a team. We’re just a 5-year-old school. We’ve yet to win district. That still belongs to Flanagan. We’ve been district runners-up every year. So that’s an immediate goal for them. So they’re hungry for that and obviously know the only way they can accomplish that is by going to state. They’ve already gotten to the regional final. They know they have to win one more to get to state, so their motto has been win one more, just one more.”

Ambros expects to face Flanagan three or four times this year as it did last year, but said Flanagan isn’t the only team West Broward has to worry about in the district.

“I think our district has gotten stronger,” he said. “Western improved last year. Everglades got into the playoffs last year and challenged Flanagan for two or three innings in that district semifinal. It’s not just Flanagan. They’re the top dogs, but we’re hoping we can repeat our success and call ourselves top dog.”

Pardo said the team has no trouble getting up for the Flanagan games.

“As always, it’s going to be a heated rivalry,” Pardo said. “With all the emotion that we’ve had over the years, it’s going to be great just to go out there and just play for something all the time. But we always keep it respectful. We have a great relationship with them, but just being able to go out there and know that it’s all your buddies that you’ve gone out there and played with throughout the time, it’s a lot of fun. Now that we’ve been able to crack the armor, we feel we’re unstoppable and maybe it’s our turn to put on the armor.”

And although West Broward still is searching for that big title on the field, it’s already champions off it with community service projects, such as the Pembroke Pines Miracle League and the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital holiday projects. Additionally, West Broward will be hosting a breast cancer awareness event Oct. 27.

“The boys know we’re doing stuff outside the community. It’s not just baseball,” Ambros said. “And that to me is the most important thing because one of my proudest things is we’re the eighth ranked team in the state of Florida in 8A for GPA as a baseball team. That means we’re doing things not only on the field but off the field and in the classroom. Those are the things we’re really proud of what West Broward baseball is all about.”

Pardo said he feels as sense of pride participating in the charity activities.

“On the field, we represent ourselves well. We’re always going to do charity events and be around other kids,” he said. “There’s been a lot of times where we don’t necessarily appreciate what we really have, so it’s nice to give back and really give to the community because sometimes they’re not as fortunate as we are.”

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