Western Upsets Flanagan 2-0 in District Semifinal

After pitching seven innings of shutout baseball, Western starting pitcher Richard Medina was not concerned with putting ice on his shoulders. Even with coaches trying to persuade him to go put on some ice, Medina was more interested in being with his teammates and coaching staff as they enjoyed the 2-0 victory over Flanagan on Tuesday night.

“When it comes down to it, I dug down deep,” Medina said. “I’m a senior. This is my time. I have to get this done. I’m a team player, and I wanted to be with the team.”

Medina’s complete-game shutout, which included nine strikeouts, ended Flanagan’s six-year divisional title run. Both teams expected a tough contest filled with strong pitching and defense. Last season, Flanagan allowed just one run in five playoff games. In addition, both regular-season matchups were well-fought games with Flanagan winning 4-3 and 6-3, respectively.

“Baseball starts with pitching and defense, ” Western Manager Paul Barnes said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game, and Richard has pitched great for us this year. He just would always hit this wall. Tonight, he went right through that wall and gave us an amazing outing.”

Early on, Western’s offense stayed aggressive enough to make solid contact against Flanagan starting pitcher Nicholas MacDonald. In the first innings, Western strung three hits together, but could not get on the board. MacDonald kept the Western offense at bay until the third inning, when Western’s Brannigan Hart roped a single to center field. Two batters later, third baseman Ryan Smith crushed a double to left field to drive in the game’s first run.

Neither offense produced another run until the Western bats came alive again in the top of the seventh inning. Erik Lassman started the inning with a double down the left field line, Michael Martinez pinch ran for him, and Hart drove him in with a single to left. In a game where runs were hard to come by, the insurance run gave Medina the confidence to complete the shutout.

However, Flanagan did not go out without a fight. Arrison Perez hit a single to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Medina did not let the single deter him, as he struck out the next batter. With Medina’s fastball still barreling down, he produced two more fly outs, with the last one causing him to throw his glove in the air and embrace his teammates.

Both starting pitchers battled inning after inning, shutting down the opposing offense. Medina used his fastball to keep the Flanagan batters off balance while MacDonald delivered strikes and relied on his defense to make plays. Flanagan Manager Ray Evans felt he could not have asked much more from his starting pitcher.

“Nick pitched an incredible game,” Evans said. “He deserved more run support. He’s been a bulldog the entire year. He’s an All-Star.”

At the game’s conclusion, Evans had the seniors address the team and express their emotions as they wore their Flanagan uniforms for the last time – a tradition Evans has kept going at the program for 13 years.

“We didn’t expect this to happen at all,” Evans said. “They were the one team that played us real tough all year. This is not indicative of how good our team is, but our season’s done. That’s it. It’s a real emotional time. For some seniors, it is the last time they will play baseball at all, so we give them a chance to say goodbye.”

For Western, the team’s season continues against West Broward on Thursday in the district championship. Barnes understands what a victory like this can do for a program, but he never saw winning just one playoff game as the ultimate goal.

“This was a step, but not our goal of this season,” Barnes said. “We have a lot more talent on this team than our record shows us. We have respect for Flanagan. This is a huge building block, but hopefully just a step.”

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