Genord Keeps Park Vista Perfect

Joey Genord was down to the Cobra’s final strike when he hit a 2 run, go-ahead double.

When the Park Vista Cobras traveled to William T. Dwyer High School to take on the Panthers on Friday afternoon, it had all the makings of a classic game. The Cobras were the top ranked team in Palm Beach County. Dwyer, having lost just once in their past 10 games, was not far behind in ranking third in the county.

It did not disappoint. At least not for Park Vista fans, whose team was down to its final strike before going on a two-out, five-run rally to escape with a 9-5 win.

Colton Rendon took the hill for Dwyer with a 4-2 record while Andy Mitchell received his second start of the season for Park Vista. Neither would end up being the pitcher of record, although it looked to be a pitcher’s duel through the first inning. Rendon allowed one inconsequential hit his first time out while Mitchell had a quick, 1-2-3 inning thanks to a little help from his defense.

Connor Webb pulled Mitchell’s second pitch of the afternoon toward third base. Nyle Newland made the first of several stand-out defensive plays for the Cobras when he dove to his left to snare the grounder then hopped up and made a perfect throw to first-baseman Joey Genord for the out.

Genord had to work a little harder for his next put-out. When Alex Neher grounded to short in the next at-bat, the resulting throw was high and to the right, forcing Genord to leap off the bag to make the catch. Not only did he do so, but he also was able to make the tag of Neher as he landed to record out number two.

“That’s something I see in the pros,” Genord remarked. “Just make sure I catch the ball first, and then get him.”

While Rendon worked a three-up, three-down inning of his own in the second, things did not go so well for Mitchell.

“You walk the lead-off guy, you kind of ask for trouble,” Dwyer manager Frank Torre said after the game in a bit of irony. He was referring to the free pass his pitcher, Hunter Whitman, issued to start the seventh inning, but could have just as easily been talking about the fact that each of the two innings that the Panthers scored in also began when his own guys drew walks.

In the second inning, it was Brian Booker who showed the patience to earn the base-on-balls but not before drawing gasps from the crowd with a hard hit fly ball that sailed just wide of the left field foul post. Shane Olive and Travis Braun followed with a couple of base hits to load the bases. With one out, Tyler Ahern hit a chopper back to the mound and Mitchell threw home to get the lead runner. Mitchell got ahead of the next batter, Alex Morales, 0-2 and looked to be in good shape to hang another zero on the scoreboard. Morales made contact on the next pitch though, dropping a blooper into shallow right field. Both Olive and Braun were able to make there way home before Ahern was tagged out while trying to make it from first to third, giving Dwyer a 2-0 lead.

Travis Braun scored in the second inning, giving the Panthers an early lead.

The patience that Booker showed in the bottom of the inning was something Park Vista batters had not been showing themselves thus far. Through the first two innings, they had swung early and often, only getting ahead in the count on one occasion.

“That’s been an on-going issue,” said Cobras Manager Larry Greenstein. “When things are going good, and guys are swinging the bat well, sometimes you get a little over anxious. When our guys are patient, they’re tough. It’s a tough line-up to face.”

Joey Innacone finally showed some of that patience with one out in the third, working a walk on eight pitches. It paid off two batters later when Tyler Barre singled him home to narrow the gap to one.

In the fourth inning, Park Vista’s defense took the spotlight again.

Leading the county in stolen bases and runs scored while batting .405, shortstop Matthew Mika is usually an offensive star. On Friday, it was his glove that made him shine. With one on and one out, he made two consecutive stellar plays to pick up his pitcher. On the first, he leaped high into the air to snag a line drive off the bat of Morales, and on the second he made a back-handed stab of a hard hit ground ball by Webb.

“If I’m not doing it at the plate, I like to do it on the field,” Mika said. “I like to make sure I make all of my plays. Not just for myself, but for my team.”

Mika made yet another leaping grab in the sixth. In the meantime, he would do his part at the plate, hitting a single to load the bases in the fifth. After a fielder’s choice to home plate kept the bases loaded but added an out, Austin Smith hit an RBI single. Two more runs scored on the play, pulling Park Vista into the lead for the first time at 4-2.

Once again the Panthers led off an inning with a walk, this time by Neher. After that, Greenstein replaced Mitchell with Tyler Constable for a lefty-on-lefty match-up against Panther’s slugger Duke Stunkel. Stunkel beat the odds, rapping a single into right field for the first hit of his 2-for-3 afternoon. Booker followed that with his second walk of the night to load the bases.

Greenstein again resorted to the chess game, replacing Constable with righty Alex Levy to face the right-handed Olive. Again, the move did not pay dividends, as Olive pulled a 2-2 pitch into left field to push Neher across. Braun then walked a run in to bring things back even at 4-4.

Dwyer was not done yet. Chase Coppersmith hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Booker and regain the lead for the Panthers. The late lead had the Dwyer dugout buzzing with confident chatter. Across the diamond, the tension in the Park Vista dugout was palpable as the possibility of marring their perfect season became very real.

Nyle Newland races for home during the Cobra’s big seventh inning.

In their final chance of the day, Park Vista finally gave Dwyer a taste of their own medicine. Innacone battled through an eight pitch at-bat to earn the lead-off walk that had proven so valuable to the Panthers all afternoon. He was just the third Cobra batter to reach via the free pass as compared to six for the Panthers. Just two of those six had ended up coming around to score for Dwyer though. Now, all Park Vista needed was one.

Mika promptly laid down a bunt and sacrificed himself to move Innacone into scoring position. Tyler Barre, who had two previous hits in the first and third innings, flew out to center field and the Cobra’s were down to their final out with Smith due up.

On the first pitch he saw from Whitman, Smith hit a checked-swing grounder back to the mound. Smith took off down the line and somehow managed to slide safely into first base for an infield hit. The Cobras were still alive.

Whitman fell behind the next batter, first-baseman Genord, before bringing the count full. One more strike and the Panthers would upset the only undefeated team in the county. But Genord had different plans. He knew that Whitman had not thrown anything but a fastball for a strike all at-bat. So he waited.

“I was looking for it the whole time,” Genord said afterwards. “I just sat on my hit, tried to let everything go, just focus on hitting the ball.”

It was Genord’s first hit of the night and it could not have been more timely. When he connected Dwyer’s Webb gave chase and made a valiant attempt at an over the shoulder grab. But the ball bounced off the fence in center while Innacone and Smith raced home, putting the Cobras back on top once and for all.

“We just talked to him yesterday, at Jupiter, about it,” Greenstein said of his first baseman who had been struggling as of late. “Don’t worry about it. Just play your game. You’re not going to get a hit every time up, everybody knows that. Don’t let it effect your next at-bat because somewhere down the line, we’re going to need that at-bat.”

For the Panthers, it was surely a heartbreaking loss.

“It’s a tough way to lose,” Torre said. “You’re a strike away, but you’ve got to finish them off. We’re a good team, and it’s good to play games like that. We’ll be all right.”

The Panthers are embroiled in a tight race for the 7A-13 title and, while the loss is disappointing, the Panthers are still confident.

“Tough team loss,” Stunkel said. “We came in here and thought we were ready. We played well, but when it came down to it, they swung the bat better. We just have to keep working everyday, keep getting better. Stay together and we’ll be good.”

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