Flanagan Takes Charge Of 8A-12 With Shutout
Sophomore Gentry Fortuno was on his game Thursday
Like an angry female version of their mascot defending a threat to its nest, the three-time defending District 8A-12 champions Flanagan Falcons showed no mercy Thursday in brushing off potential title contenders Everglades.
Sophomore ace Gentry Fortuno pitched five innings of three-hit shutout baseball, retiring 12 straight at one point, and all but two of Flanagan’s lineup recorded a hit as they cruised to a 10-0 victory over the Gators.
“Gentry did his thing, despite not being comfortable on that mound,” said Flanagan Manager Ray Evans, whose team now has a two-game lead atop 8A-12. “The last three games we’re starting to swing the bats. We now have a little bit of breathing room.”
Speaking of breathing, Evans might have gasped audibly in pre-game when, after preparing all week to face Everglades ace left-hander Adam Murray, he saw the name of junior right-hander Edwin Bonilla on the lineup sheet.
Murray struck out 12 in a complete game effort during last week’s 2-0 win over Cypress Bay, and with so much on the line in this contest, Evans was surprised to see Murray not take the hill.
“They (Everglades) had an opportunity today to play for first place, but maybe he’s pitched a little bit,” Evans said of Murray. “We wanted to see their best and have them face our best. We practiced all week to face a left-hander, and the kids were disappointed.”
AJ Munoz had two hits and a pair of RBI
It didn’t take long for Flanagan (8-2, 5-0) to adjust to the ball coming from the other side of the mound they were expecting though, as they racked up a pair of hits in each of the opening three innings. But some good defense and poor defense limited the damage.
In the first, Oscar Rodriguez singled to center with two on and two out, but a superb throw home by center fielder Brandon Escalante got Eric Rivera at the plate to end the inning.
The Falcons opened the scoring in the second thanks to an RBI triple by Brandon Melendez. When next batter Andres Rios hit a ground ball to third, Melendez tried to score and was caught in a run down. As he was being tagged out, Rios tried to replace Melendez on third and was tagged out himself.
Everglades (6-2. 3-2) threatened themselves in the first with two on and only one out, but those runners were stranded, and that would be their last chance for a while as Fortuno got used to a strange mound and really settled down.
The right-hander got four of his six strikeouts in the first two innings and retired 12 straight batters between the first and fifth innings, mixing up an effective curve ball and solid fastball with the occasional change-up.
“All my pitches worked pretty well throughout the game,” Fortuno said. “I’m not used to the hole in the mound being six feet deep, but I just had to adjust.”
Gators starter Edwin Bonilla kept his team in it early
Flanagan doubled its lead in the third when an AJ Munoz’s double drove in Andres Visbal, who had three hits himself on the day, and although the Gators were hanging in there, it always seemed a matter of time before the game broke open.
That happened in the fifth when the Falcons capitalized on an error to score three unearned runs, chasing Bonilla in the process.
Things got worse in the sixth for Everglades when the Falcons batted around to score five more runs, putting the game into the mercy-rule zone.
The Gators almost got on the board in the sixth to keep the game going, but Andrew Hernandez was gunned down at the plate while trying to score from second on a single by Kristopher Taveras. Both Gators involved in that play were the only two with multiple hits.
After the game, Everglades Manager Oddibe McDowell was straightforward with what happened.
“We didn’t get runners on base. We didn’t get hits like we needed to,” McDowell said. “We’re a better ballclub than we played today. We just didn’t execute.”
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