Central Scores Seven in the Sixth To Give Park Vista Its First Loss

For many years, the Park Vista Cobras and the Palm Beach Central Broncos battled it out for district supremacy. The district realignments have these teams in different 8A districts this year, but that didn’t diminish the intensity of the game as a playoff-like atmosphere reigned supreme throughout Saturday night.

“It’s always been a big rivalry. They have a great program,” Cobras coach Larry Greenstein said. “They have kids that work hard and play hard like we do, so it’s a big rivalry, bragging rights, I guess.”

On Saturday night, the Broncos showed their brass as they capitalized on a seven-run sixth inning to hand the Cobras their first loss of the season, 12-3.

Despite the outcome, the Cobras got their bats rolling in the bottom of the second, as Jason DeFelice tripled over the center fielder to lead off the inning. He eventually scored on a wild pitch. The offensive kept rolling after, as Shane Bussey tagged a ball up the middle to make it 2-0.

In the bottom of the third, the Cobras took advantage of a misplaced groundball to score their third run. Ronnie Coleman, who singled earlier in the inning, scored on the error.

Down by three runs, the Broncos utilized an offensive stampede to score two runs in the top of the fourth. Brady Roberson started the rally with double off the wall and came around to score on an RBI single by Gabe Martinez. The second run was brought in on an RBI single by Hunter Morey.

With the bases loaded, Greenstein summoned left-hander Brandon Rhodes from the bullpen. With Rhodes coming off a complete-game shutout earlier in the week, Greenstein had complete confidence in the lefty.

“Brandon is our guy,” Greenstein said. “He has been our guy all year.”

His move paid off as Rhodes promptly struck out the batter to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Cobras placed runners on second and third with no outs against reliever Jorge Alfonso, but the right-hander settled down and kept the runners at bay. With two outs and both runners in scoring position, center-fielder Gage Morey made the play of the night, as he slid in from dead center for the catch to keep the Broncos within a run.

“It was a pretty big momentum boost,” Morey said. “There was a guy on third and second, and I’m pretty sure both those guys would have scored if I didn’t catch that. I had to slide cause I didn’t want to collide with our shortstop.”

The following inning, the Broncos erupted for seven runs on eight hits. After a misplayed groundball, the Broncos knocked out seven straight hits to give themselves a 9-3 lead. Hunter Morey brought in the first run of the inning, while Gage Morey added two more RBI later in the frame.

The Broncos added three more in the last inning to make it 12-3. The offense was led by Gage Morey, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Brady Roberson went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

“I think we are strong one through nine,” coach Scott Benedict said. “We work hard on staying away from strikeouts and putting the ball in play. Park Vista has the strongest lineup we have faced this year, but I’d put my lineup against anyone else’s lineup.”

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