Flanagan Staves Off Persistent West Boca Team

Flanagan and West Boca wrapped up their play in the HSBN Preseason Challenge on Thursday, each leaving with a list of things they need to fix as the regular season approaches next week.

With a solid pitching performance from Gentry Fortuno and Chris Rodriguez, the host Falcons did enough to win as they held off the pesky, never-say-die Bulls 6-3.

Flanagan opened the game strong with three runs in the first two innings. Brandon Melendez scored the first of his three runs on a wild pitch, and A.J. Munoz added another on Ryan Dodge’s RBI single.

It could have been worse for the Bulls as the Falcons loaded the bases in the first with two outs. A fly out ended the threat. Flanagan stranded two more baserunners in the next inning. Flanagan totaled nine baserunners left the end of the night, a stat Manager Ray Evans found unacceptable.

“The other night we didn’t leave many baserunners,”Evans said. “We were scoring those. And we had guys swinging at pitches they shouldn’t have been swinging at. We got good counts to go ahead and be aggressive. We were taking a lot of first-pitch fastball strikes, which we weren’t very aggressive on those either. We’ve just got to do a better job offensively when there’s guys out there in scoring position. We have to bear down a little bit better, at least move them 90 feet and get big hits.”

West Boca narrowed the deficit to two with a solo home run by Sean Kuchta.

Flanagan made it a 6-1 game in the fifth by adding three runs. Melendez singled in Oscar Rodriguez and scored his third run of the night, along with Andres Rios, on Munoz’s double.

“It’s definitely a team effort. It’s not a one-man team. Everybody’s pitching in,” Munoz said. “In our last game, we won 10-0 and we had no errors. If we keep that up, we’ll be fine. Hitting should be there. It’s been pretty consistent. Our pitching is there. Definitely it’s been there. We’re going to be good there.”

West Boca narrowed the margin in the sixth. Mike Mule scored on Kuchta’s sacrifice fly, and Bradley Bush came home on Joe White’s single.

Bulls Manager Nick Siano said his team dug itself into a hole early and couldn’t crawl out.

“I think we just got behind the eight ball a little bit,” Siano said. “We gave them too many baserunners early and often. They had runners pretty much every inning. We walked seven batters. We hit two batters. So we gave them nine free passes. But we chipped away here and there and I think it could be a different ballgame if we didn’t give up so many opportunities early.”

West Boca also defeated Chaminade-Madonna 8-7 this week, and the HSBN Preseason Challenge has given Siano a look at what has to happen for the team to improve.

“I think the overall takeaway is we went 1-1 against some quality ballclubs from Broward County. We still need to get better. It’s early. We made a lot of mistakes and missed some signs. We just weren’t executing some things. That’s what the preseason is for, iron out all the kinks and get the things you need to for the spring. I think we’ll be OK. It was little things right now that we’re not doing right, little details.”

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