Central Overcomes Gritty Performance By Trinity’s Rodriguez To Get Tourney Win

The Broncos gather after warm-ups.

The Palm Beach Central Broncos used a late-inning surge to beat the Trinity Christian Eagles 4-2 on the second night of the Santaluces Grand Slam Tournament at the Santaluces Sports Complex.

Both teams returned to action after playing the night before, and starter Alexander Rodriguez looked ready to go out of the gate, retiring the side in order and recording two strikeouts. It was an impressive first inning as the left-hander threw nine of his 10 pitches in the strike zone.

In the top half, Rodriguez helped his cause by giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly to the center fielder. The offense could not muster anything after that as it left Franco Guardascione stranded at second.

The Broncos didn’t sit back in the next inning, as three of the first four hitters reached base. Back-to-back singles by Joe Shue and Danny Hernandez loaded the bases for Shawn Murray, and the Broncos tied it. However, Rodriguez limited the damage by inducing a fielder’s choice and a fly out.

With the score 1-1, both Rodriguez and opposing pitcher John Padich held ground until the fifth. In the top of the fifth, the Broncos capitalized on a fielding error to score a run, and the Warriors used a one-out RBI double by Sjeghbar Martis to knot the score. Even with his pitcher reeling after the hard hit, Broncos coach Scott Benedict did not think of taking his lefty out of the game.

“Even in the first inning when he got into some trouble, I thought he did a good job of damage control,” Benedict said about pulling his starter. “He kept mixing his pitches and he kept throwing strikes. I thought if he (Padich) kept throwing strikes, we would make plays behind him.”

The team responded with two great plays on the field to keep the game 2-2.

Battling through illness, Rodriguez kept fighting, and even after topping the 100-pitch mark in the sixth, the lefty asked his coach for one more inning.

“I was going to take him out in the seventh,” Trinity coach Miguel Cuello said. “The way I saw him and the way I felt. I was going to take him out, but he wanted to come out for the seventh.”

Regardless of the outcome, one had to applaud Rodriguez’ determination and effort, but in the seventh, a two-out, bases-loaded miscue led to two unearned runs for the Broncos.

That was more than enough for left-handed reliever Lance Stiles, who set down the Warriors in order in the seventh, recording his first win of the year in two innings of shutout baseball. Stiles, a hard-throwing lefty, did not let the tough situation faze him and had an approach when he stepped on the mound.

” I just went right at them,” Stiles said. “I looked at the charts we had on them and threw the same stuff that [Padich] was throwing. I did not change anything.”

His style worked as the win inches the Broncos one step closer to Friday’s championship, while the Warriors fell to 0-2 in the tournament.

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