Park Vista Shuts Down Flanagan in HSBN Preseason Challenge

Brandon Rhodes threw four innings and gave up no runs or walks as he faced the minimum.

The Flanagan Falcons and Park Vista Cobras have battled it out in the postseason almost on a yearly basis, and one of the two teams typically wins or goes to the state title game each year of recent memory. So this game, being preseason, wasn’t as important in the grand scheme of things. But Park Vista still made a statement, shutting out the Falcons 6-0 on Flanagan’s home turf.

The first inning of the game epitomized the game in its entirety. Flanagan walked three of the first four batters Park Vista brought to the plate, two of whom scored, one of whom knocked in a run. On the other side of the plate, a nice play by second baseman Brett Lashley, then another by shortstop Tyler Kendall, then a strikeout looking for starting pitcher Brandon Rhodes, showed which team was more mentally focused this early in the season.

“You got to be ready to play, throw strikes and play defense, and I was pleased with how we got a hit when we needed to tonight,” Park Vista head coach Larry Greenstein said.

Two lead-off walks in the top of the third, a sacrifice bunt and a two-run double by first baseman Jason DeFelice put the Cobras up 5-0 over the perennial Broward powerhouse. DeFelice hit another shot to right later in the game that went for a triple.

“Overall, I didn’t think we hit the ball extremely well,” Greenstein said (obviously not speaking of DeFelice’s night in particular), “but we got a lot of opportunities handed to us and we took advantage of them.”

Brandon Rhodes brought a no-hitter into the fourth. The lead-off hitter for Flanagan in the inning lined what looked to be a sure double in the gap to left-center, but a sprinting Trey Amburgey came from center field and laid out in dramatic fashion and made the catch to save the no-no for Rhodes. It were these types of plays that marked the difference between the two teams in the game.

“They have a ball where a guy runs 30 to 40 yards in a dead run, lays out and makes a spectacular play,” Flanagan head coach Ray Evans said. “We have two guys on a ball that should be caught by one of them, they both lay out and miss.”

Flanagan did make a few nice defensive plays of their own, as their catcher picked off a runner at second base, and the Falcons did turn a nice double play, but Vista made no mistakes in the field or on the mound.

Brandon Rhodes won the player of the game honor, which awarded him with a free HSBN Extended Profile. He, unfortunately, gave up his no-hit bid in the fourth when Andres Sanches got a hit, but he faced the minimum through his four complete innings pitched. He finished his night with 4 IP, 4 K’s, 1 H, and 0 BB’s.

“Everything was working today,” Rhodes said after the game. But he credits his relationship with his catcher Robbie Coman. “I’ve been playing with him for a while and we really work together with pitch calling, and tonight we did well.”

Rhodes said he is intent on getting better control on some of his pitches. He explained that he let a few pitches escape up in the zone. When I pointed out the irony that he was concerned with his control on a night that he threw zero walks, like a true professional, he simply said, “Well, you can always work on your location.”

Park Vista will next play Douglas at American Heritage Delray on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

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