Preseason Kicks Off With Plantation Win Over Coconut Creek

It has been nearly a year since Flanagan and Archbishop McCarthy became the latest Broward County teams to be crowned state champions, and since then, fans, coaches, and players have been waiting for the new season to begin. On Monday, Plantation and Coconut Creek kicked off the 2011 campaign.

The Colonels and Cougars began what is sure to be an exciting 2011 season with a preseason afternoon game at Deerfield Beach High School. The Bucks have hosted preseason games for many years, and on Monday it was Plantation and Coconut Creek that took center stage.

The game played out much as expected with both teams trying to get out the early season jitters that come along with starting anew. The Colonels were able to deal with the pressure better that the Cougars, and carried a wave of patience to a 13-3 victory.

Adam Shorr set the tone for the game in the top of the first inning when he coaxed a walk out of Creek starting pitcher Nick Hechavarria. The walk would be the first of four in the inning, to go along with one hit batter and one error. By the end of the frame, Plantation would have three runs without getting a base hit.

It did not get much better from there for Creek as Plantation put up three more runs in the second, and five in the third. Most of the runs came courtesy of the free pass, but Colonels shortstop Dan Vasquez did manage a two run double and a single between the walks.

The Cougars did get on the board in the second when Michael Neun reached base on a walk, then scored on a passed ball and two wild pitches by Plantation starting pitcher Gus Cinquino. The Colonels pitcher went two innings and gave up only the one run, while striking out four and walking two.

The rest of the game played out much like the first few innings, with Coconut Creek pitchers showing that the mound can be a lonely place this early in the season. Strikes were hard to come by for most of the game, although Anthony Illiano pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

Plantation will build on this performance as they head towards the regular season next week, and coach Albert Destrade seemed pleased with the performance and effort his players gave on opening day.

“It felt good to start on the right side of the win column. Obviously, I thought we played pretty well. We got an opportunity to get everyone involved in the ball game, and hopefully we can build on this positive momentum, get us going,” said Destrade, “Last year was a little bit of a, we took our lumps sort of speak, but we’re pretty confident in the kids we have this year, and we think it will be kind of a bounce back year for the program.”

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