Atlantic Evens Its Record With Win Over Santaluces

Michael Buckley led the Atlantic offense with a 3-for-4, 3 RBI performance.

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The Atlantic Eagles have had some trouble with slow starts. Yet, they always manage to turn things around.

Last year at this time, the Eagles were 0-6-1 but rebounded to win the district 7A-13 title. This season they looked to be on the same path, opening the campaign with three consecutive losses. But then they proceeded to win three of the next four to bring themselves within a game of .500 entering Thursday night’s match-up with the Santaluces Chiefs.

Once again, they got off to a sluggish start, falling behind the Chiefs by a score of 1-0 after the first inning and 3-2 after the third. True to its nature, Atlantic found its groove and chalked up seven runs in the final four frames to walk away with a convincing 9-2 victory.

“We were a little bit flat to start out,” said Eagle’s Manager Steve Wilson. “But once we got going, once we got into our rhythm, then things flowed pretty well for us.”

A big reason the Eagles were flat to start out was Santaluces’ starter Ben Fagan. With staff ace Chad Tworek suffering from tendinitis, Chiefs’ Manager Nick Franco has been forced to lean on his number two through the early part of the season. With big district contests against Boca Raton and Park Vista on the docket for next week, Franco did not have that luxury on Thursday night however. He could only trot Fagan out to the mound for the first and second innings.

The senior, who is in a starting role for the first time in his career, made the most of his short night. Effectively mixing speeds to keep Atlantic hitters off balance, Fagan recorded three strikeouts and never allowed a hit, although he did walk one batter and plunk another.

He received some early run support in the home half of the first when Chris Morgia laced a ground ball up the middle to drive in Austin Smith, who had been standing on second base after a two-out, two-base error. Morgia was an offensive powerhouse for the Chiefs and would go on to chalk up three hits in as many at bats, another RBI and also drew a walk in a fourth plate appearance.

Chris Morgia was a perfect 3-for-3 and also drove in two of the Chiefs’ three runs.

With Fagan on the bench in the top of the third, the Eagles lashed out at his replacement. Brach Thomas started it off with a leadoff single, and then stole both second and third base so that Alex Cordes could bring him around with a soft line-drive into shallow center field. Cordes then scored as well when Stefan Leclerc hit a two-out single into the right-center field gap to give Atlantic a 2-1 lead.

Santaluces played some “small ball” to answer right back in their half of the third. Justin Anglin led off with a single from the nine spot, then took second on a sacrifice bunt by A.J. Orrico. Fagan moved him to third with a base hit, before Smith brought him home to tie the game at two with a sacrifice fly. The Chiefs then reclaimed the lead when Morgia doubled in Fagan by crushing a 1-0 pitch well over the center fielder’s head.

With a one-run lead, Franco opted for an interesting mound strategy, sending his third pitcher of the night to the mound in just the fourth inning. He would then turn to two more relievers the rest of the way for a total of five pitchers on the night.

“We were trying to pitch a different pitcher every inning to try and keep the hitters off balance,” explained Franco. “I know in Fall Ball it seems to work and then we get to the spring we get away from it as coaches and we go with our guys for extended innings. But, right now we don’t have guys that can go extended innings based on the schedule and the week, and when we have district games coming up.”

Rather than being caught off guard, Atlantic took full advantage of the Chiefs’ inexperienced relievers. The Eagles scored three runs in the fourth on only one base hit. That hit was a two-run single by Michael Buckley, who, after being struck by a Fagan pitch in the first and popping out in the third, went on a 3-for-3 tear with three RBIs to close out the night.

“Before this game I’ve been kind of struggling,” claimed Buckley. “I’ve been changing things up, but tonight I finally felt comfortable up there. I just did a couple things after my first two at bats and then after that everything came natural.”

The Eagles added two more unearned runs in the fifth and then, with a good number of reserves coming to the plate, capped it off with a two-run seventh.

“We may be down, but we’re never out,” said Colin Kosuch, the Eagles’ designated hitter. “We keep fighting no matter what. We can be down five, six; we’ll still fight, come back and win the ball game.”

Wilson is happy with his team’s resolve but knows that a tough road still lies ahead.

“It’s better, but we still gotta work every game,” said Wilson about this season’s 4-4 start as compared to the 1-6-1 mark from a year ago. “We always have to work every game, and tonight we did. We came back strong and I’m glad we’re back at .500, but tomorrow we’re playing Dwyer, a huge district game, and West Boca after that. So we can’t have a letdown when you’re playing in Palm Beach County.”

The loss drops a young Santaluces squad to 1-7 on the season. Franco knows it is up to him and his coaches to get things turned around.

“Right now, we’re not doing a lot of good things,” admitted Franco. “And it’s my job and the coaches job to try and figure out how to stop being bad.”

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