Pompano Beach Hangs On To Beat Fort Lauderdale

Under the lights on Tuesday evening, the Fort Lauderdale Flying L’s hosted the Pompano Beach Golden Tornadoes. The hard-fought 7-4 victory went to Pompano Beach, but not without some drama.

Manager Joe Giummule found his team in familiar territory Tuesday evening, leading the Flying L’s throughout the seven inning tilt.  Earlier this season, the Golden Tornadoes had held leads against American Heritage and Coral Glades, only to give up those leads and the ballgames. Giummule was determined to stop that pattern and Tuesday the team responded.

When Fort Lauderdale made a late comeback bid, Pompano closer Kelsey Lunde stepped up to seal the door. Lunde closed out the contest to preserve the win, earn the save and get his club back into the win column.

“All I was thinking when I came in was to finish the ball game,” Lunde recalled. “We have had some tough ones lately and I wanted to make sure we walked away with a win.”

Pompano Beach (5-4) jumped to an early 4-1 lead after three innings. The Golden Tornadoes came out swinging, collecting six hits in the first three innings while plating four. One of those hits was a towering home run by junior left fielder Vince Costello. Costello exhibited excellent skill with the bat as he choked up with two strikes and, using a compact swing, lofted the ball 335 feet over the hedges in left field.

“What was nice about Vinnie’s hit was that he was choked up. He has a tendency to swing for the fences, but on this at bat he kept his composure,” Giummule said. “He shortened up and bam, good things happened.”

Fort Lauderdale (3-7) did not give up. The Flying L’s got a run in the bottom of the first inning and clawed their way back throughout the contest. After Pompano Beach widened the lead to 6-1 in the top of the fifth, Fort Lauderdale came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Reese Blankenship scored twice for Fort Lauderdale, and senior Hassan Westbrooke had two hits and was on base three times.

“This is the best baseball game we have played this year,” Manager Terry Portice proclaimed. “We showed some fight for seven innings tonight. We showed determination and resolve. I liked what I saw.”

That determination showed  in the bottom of the sixth, when the Flying L’s scored a run and brought the tying run to plate. With runners on second and third and two outs, junior Daniel Silva worked the count full. Pompano Beach closer Kelsey Lunde kept firing fastballs in the strike zone and Silva spoiled them off, several times hitting foul balls as the fans sat on the edge of their seats. Lunde finally came out on top, enticing Silva to ground out to third on a nice play by Nick Marcantonio.

“He’s our sandman,” Starting pitcher AJ Marcantonio said about reliever  Kelsey Lunde. “He came in and did the job.”

Playing without one of their key players, Garret Hiott, the Golden Tornadoes still pounded out 13 hits to tally their seven runs. Hunter Stept had three hits, scored a run and had an RBI. Nick Costello also collected three hits, driving in two runs. The Marcantonio brothers also led Pompano Beach. Nick had two hits and an RBI while starting pitcher AJ threw six strikeouts with only one walk in four and two-third innings.

“We are a very talented team; we have yet to play to our full potential,” Giummule said.  “We didn’t play our best ballgame, but it was nice to come out with a win. “

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