Flying L’s Fall After A Hard-Fought Season

To kick off in the regional playoffs, For Lauderdale High hosted Dwyer High from Palm Beach in an unfamiliar meeting between the two schools. Dwyer’s Colton “Chief” Rendon led the Panthers on the mound with a dominant performance.

At 6″2 and only a sophomore, Rendon has already gained the respect of his team and put the fear in opposing batters. Rendon tossed six scoreless innings, striking out seven, and giving up four hits. Besides a hiccup in the third, Rendon was able to bypass any trouble and cruised to a 8-0 victory and advancement to the next round.

“He had one rough inning where Travis made a good play in the outfield and kind of bailed us out. He finished real strong his last couple of innings,” said Dwyer Manager Frank Torre. “Early on, I think he was fighting himself a little bit, but what he is so good at even when he is struggling a little bit, he still finds a way to strikes when he needs to. He really limits any damage. I’m proud of him, and he has been our horse lately. With Thomas, who is one of our other aces out the last couple of weeks, he has really picked up the slack for us.”

Fort Lauderdale hosted their first regional game in 10 years with high hopes of playing on and ending up in Fort Myers. On Wednesday night, the Panthers were just too much for the Flying L’s to handle. Behind a great pitching performance, timely hitting, and excellent base running, Dwyer controlled the game from the first batter.

In the first, the Panthers Connor Webb and Justin Alintoff reached on errors. Dwyer then manufactured three runs by playing small ball. Three stolen bases, a sac fly to center, a balk, and passed ball helped give the Panthers their early lead.

On the mound for the Flying L’s was Chase Navarro, who shined all year with an ERA under one. Navarro threw three innings, allowed just one-run after the first, and was charged with two earned runs on the night.

The away half of the fourth brought fireworks for the Panthers as they added to their 4-0 lead. In relief, Matthew Freeman of Fort Lauderdale retired the first two batters he faced in what looked to be a smooth inning for the Flying L’s. Webb, however, started things off again, with a two-out base hit.

Alex Neher then doubled in Webb for the first run of the inning. Senior lefty power hitter Duke Stunkel, who already drove in a run earlier in the game, came to the plate with a short porch in right and hope to extend the lead.

“When I got to the park I saw it right away. I didn’t really try to hit a homer, I just looked for a pitch to drive and got a hold of one,” said Stunkel about the hitters-friendly right field line.

Stunkel promptly unloaded on the pitch to deep right center. Stunkel has led the Panther offense all year, and it only seemed right that in his final high school games of his career, that he finished with a bang.

“Duke’s our guy, when he goes, we tend to do well,” said Torre. “The last couple of games he has been swinging great. Tonight he had two good early at bats; a sac fly in the first, a base hit in the third. Then he got a nice pitch to hit and had a big cut on it. That was huge for us, to give us some breathing room and getting the lead to seven.”

Brian Brooker and Shane Olive followed the home run with back to back singles to cap off five straight hits for the Panthers. Dwyer added one more run in the inning to give them an 8-0 lead halfway through the game.

Freeman settled down after the two-out rally and kept the Panthers off the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

Rendon got stronger and became more comfortable as the game progressed for the Panthers on the mound. Working with an eight-run lead made things a lot less stressful on the hill for the young athlete. Having never faced or seen any batters in the line-up Wednesday, Rendon had the ability to adjust and throw strikes like he has done all year.

“I just wanted to come out and throw strikes, do the best I could do and keep my team in the game,” said Rendon. “I was hitting my spots throughout the game, and I wanted to change speeds against these guys and keep them off balance.”

Dwyer will move on to the regional semifinals and play on the road again. Playing on the road doesn’t seem to faze the Panthers in an attempt to ultimately become state 7A champions.

“We played a few home games in a row, in districts we were the home team for a few games. It wasn’t the worse thing tonight to jump right out there. Tonight it might of played in our favor a little bit being on the road,” Torre commented.

For the Flying L’s, although falling short in the regional semifinal game, their season was nothing short of a success. Throughout the year Fort Lauderdale battled on the road to their first district title in a decade.

“Tonight was a little microcosm of our season. We could look sharp for two games and go wherever those teams go for a game or two then come back. We battle and fight then shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” said Flying L’s manager Terry Portice. “I liked our kids effort everyday, I tried to get the most out of this team I could all year and I think we did a great job. They improved from the beginning of the season to now, playing much smarter baseball and making solid contact. I am very proud of this group.”

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