West Broward Wins Group Four, Allows Only One Run in Three Games

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West Broward’s pitching staff gave up one run in 19 innings in their three games of group play at the HSBN/Perfect Recruits Fall Classic. The Bobcats beat Sagemont 11-0 in their first game, they pitched another shut out against Fort Lauderdale in their next game, and yesterday they took care of Zion 4-1. The pitching-dominant display in Group Four play clinched them the top seed for Round Two.

“We’re going to compete this year with our pitching,” head coach for West Broward Sergio Ambros said after the game.

The team threw seven pitchers so far in the tournament, four seniors and three juniors, and Ambros said a couple more pitchers are on his staff that didn’t get a chance to throw.

“We can really change things up during the game, that is going to always make it tough on opposing teams because we have guys we can throw in different situations,” Ambros said.

Not many high school teams have the depth to bring pitchers in for certain situations. In yesterday’s game, Ambros started junior pitcher Mark Mendez, who went four innings, allowing only one hit. Then he “pieced together innings” with two senior pitchers, Zach Moreira and Marc Hadley, who each pitched an inning, and finally, the game was setup for team closer, junior Matt Hardy.

The team showed some flaws in the field with three errors, but Ambros said he was allowing other players in his lineup an opportunity to be tested in pressure situations, so his full starting lineup was not playing or at their normal positions in the game.

“With the shortened high school season,” Ambros said, “I’m taking this time in the fall to give players an opportunity. ‘This game,’ I told my players, ‘is a game of opportunities.'”

However, it was starters Mike Mordente and Luigi Perez who put together a single and a double in the first inning to give the Bobcats a 1-0 lead that remained that way until the seventh inning when their team added three more runs.

Zion Comes Up Short, But is Still Optimistic of the Future

Although Zion Lutheran came up short in the tournament, head coach Jose Piedra was happy with his team’s performance and said he understands that tournaments like this one are going to make his very young team better.

Zion is returning only four players from last year. The new team only has two seniors and three juniors, the rest are freshman and sophomore.

“It is always one inning of mental lapses that kills us,” Piedra said. “We are in every single game, but all fall season, it has been one inning that we break down and can’t recover, and that comes from being young.”

And that inning came in the seventh for Zion in this game. Sophomore pitcher Eric Hepple kept a strong West Broward offense off balance the majority of the game, striking out seven and allowing only that first-inning run to score. Then, on Hepple’s seventh strikeout of the night, the ball got by the catcher, who then threw past first base. Another passed ball and hit allowed three runs to score for West Broward.

“We are a very young team, so we will have mental lapses like we did,” Piedra said, “but I’m definitely looking forward to what this team is going to do in the near future.”

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