West Broward Stumbles 3-1 To Dwyer To Open Tournament

West Broward Manager Sergio Ambros admitted it was one of the best high school baseball games he has been a part of in a long time.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats, it came in a defeat.

Dwyer capitalized on a few defensive micues in the top of the seventh to come back for a 3-1 victory over West Broward on Monday night, in the opener of the Selective Recruiting- Sir Pizza Invitational tournament played at Ian Besler Field at Nova Southeastern University.

Connor Webb and Griffin Locke both scored on an infield throwing error, and the Panthers added an insurance run after another error extended the inning.

“Unfortunately, it took a mistake by them, but that’s baseball,” Dwyer Manager Frank Torre said. “But you kind of make your own luck, too. If you put yourself in those situations, if you put the ball in play and put some guys on.”

Down to their final swings trailing 1-0, Dwyer (6-7) did exactly that.

Travis Braun drew a one-out walk, and was replaced by Webb on the bases.

The Bobcats (7-4) went to the bullpen for Matt Hardy, who came in looking for his first save of the season. But Hardy quickly ran into trouble after hitting Chase Coppersmith with a pitch and walking Victor Didiego to load the bases and bring up Austin Marrs.

Marrs put the ball in play for the winning runs when the defense was unable to complete the back end of a double-play attempt.

He added an insurance run later in the inning when the Panthers executed a double steal from first and third that worked in pushing Marrs across the plate

Dwyer ace Cheyne Bickell had battled through six innings before West Broward managed a run off of him. But now that his team had lifted him back up, there was no question that he was coming back on the mound to close it out.

By game’s end Bickell would throw 103 pitches, and 67 of those would go for a strike as he closed with 12 strikeouts in all while allowing two hits, two walks and hitting a batter.

“There is a reason why he is an MLB prospect,” Ambros said. “You look across the dugout and you see we’re going head to head with them. You know they’re talented, when they’ve got a couple of arms like they do. But I’m happy with both my young guys; they went out there and battled.”

West Broward started sophomore Michael Schappell on Monday, and for five innings the young right-hander matched pitch for pitch with the future Ole Miss player Bickell.

Shappell allowed the Panthers only hit of the contest and issued three walks and hit a batter, while recording six strikeouts before turning over a scoreless tie to Anthony Molina to start the sixth inning.

West Broward finally broke through in the sixth, when Danny Pardo drove a liner to shallow left field to score Aires Rivera.

Rivera had reached when he was hit by a pitch, and then advanced on an error. The miscues were surprising, as it came just after Panthers shortstop Hunter Hope opened the inning with the play of the game when he chased down a liner deep through the left side and then threw off of his back foot to somehow perfectly find the glove of the first baseman Coppersmith to record the out.

But Bickell struck out the next five Bobcats batters swinging, including retiring the side in order in the seventh to close it out.

The tournament features many of South Florida’s top baseball programs competing for a chance at the championship game, played at the University of Miami on Saturday.

Monday’s game also represented a chance for the two programs to get a look at one another, as each team is a strong contender in Class 8A.

“They’re a great team, and we knew they would be,” Torre said. “We were excited to play them and also knew we would have to play a good game. The competition for this tournament… there are such good teams, and beautiful facilities and our kids get excited for it.”

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