Flanagan Mercy Rules Park Vista To Open Preseason

It’s only preseason, but Flanagan’s 10-0 win over Park Vista on Tuesday in the HSBN Preseason Challenge meant a lot to both teams for different reasons.

The stage wasn’t quite as big as the two regional finals these teams battled through in the past five years, but behind a strong pitching performance by Alex Sarmiento, the Falcons got to enjoy the gratification of finally beating one of their toughest opponents in recent history.

The Falcons had gone 0-for-5 in their attempts to defeat the Cobras. The pain started in 2008 when Park Vista won 4-2 and 6-3 in the regional final when it was a best-of-three series. Park Vista won 7-6 in the 2011 regional final as well, celebrating on Flanagan’s field. The Cobras came in as visitors and also beat the Falcons twice in the preseason the past two years, including 6-0 last year in a rare home shutout for Flanagan.

As a senior, Brandon Melendez was there for that heartbreaking loss in 2011. He knows how his team felt after that, and said he tried to get his teammates up for the game. To set the tone, he led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored.

“I told my teammates about that and how it would be nice to come out here and take this win, especially on our home field,” said Melendez, who went 3-for-4 with two sacrifice fly RBIs, a double and two runs. “We don’t like to get beaten here. We practice here every day, we practice hard. And we were just trying to bring it to them. When we come out here, we expect to win. That’s all we can ask for. “

Flanagan’s season last year also ended in frustration as the Falcons again got to watch someone else walk off their field victorious. In that case, it was district nemesis West Broward. Flanagan coach Ray Evans said the team took some time before Tuesday’s game to reflect on that.

“We saw video today,” Evans said. “It was highlight video, but at the end we took two minutes of video and they saw last year’s last game, the celebration on the field. I had already seen it like two or three times. I was sick to my stomach. I walked out. I didn’t hear one sound while they were watching.”

Flanagan took all of that to heart as it came out ready to play and aggressive, taking a 3-0 lead in the first. Daniel Oliveri and Oscar Rodriguez drove in two of those runs, and another scored on an error.

Eric Rivera, who finished the night 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, two RBI and two runs, led off the second and scored on Melendez’s sacrifice fly.

Flanagan scored a pair of runs in each of the next three innings to end the game by the mercy rule.

Park Vista’s Austin Smith managed the first hit of the night off Sarmiento in the third. Landon Myers doubled in the fourth for the Cobras’ only other hit of the night.

The quick start fueled a fine performance by Alex Sarmiento, a junior who’s eager to show his mettle after having to take a year off. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out five.

“My fastball was decent,” Sarmiento said. “It gets better, but it was there. And it was moving a little bit, so they were having a hard time hitting it, and I could just come in with my curve ball, throw a little change-ups in there. I just had them off balance the whole time.”

The 3-0 start was all he needed to stay calm and do his job.

“Any pitcher can tell you that that’s the best, at the beginning when your team just comes in and starts raking and getting runs for you, you can just take a deep breath and relax knowing they got runs on the board,” Sarmiento said. “It feels good, it feels very good. We can finally say we beat Park Vista. I pitched pretty well and my teammates helped me out, so we can all say we made a stamp on this year. If we can do this every time, just part of this, like we played today, we’ll be very good this season.”

Evans praised Sarmiento, a junior, calling him “a very enthusiastic kid.” It was his first meaningful outing in more than a year as he had to sit out last season after playing too much summer ball after his freshman year, Evans said.

“He did real well,” Evans said. “I’m happy with him. He missed some spots. His tempo was always up. He had some trouble seeing signs late. That was what slowed us up in the fourth.”

Park Vista coach Larry Greenstein said his team is working to overcome the adversity of losing two catchers, the entire infield and its top two pitchers from last year.

“They had a really good pitcher on the hill. He had really good command. He threw two or three pitches very well,” Greenstein said. “They came out swinging. They’re a good ballclub, and we knew they were going to be a good ballclub. They’re a good ballclub every year. Ray does a good job with that team. We gave up nine free passes, something like three hit batters, six walks or somewhere in that neighborhood, and you can’t beat anybody like that. It was just a rough outing for our guys, and they’ll have to pick up the pieces and learn how to get ahead of hitters. We just didn’t do that all night and it hurt us, but not taking away anything from them. They just took advantage of every opportunity they got. That’s a sign of a good ballclub. I tip my cap to them.”

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