Flanagan Earns Road Victory Over Palm Beach Central

Connor Power makes a throw to first on a slow roller to third base.

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The Flanagan offense has taken some time to get going in games recently, but once it does good things continue to happen. Facing a nice road challenge against Palm Beach Central on Friday night at Little Fenway Park in Delray Beach, the Falcons capitalized their third and fourth time through the order to break open a scoreless contest and pave the way to a 5-1 victory.

Eric Rivera worked a walk in the top of the fifth and then came in on a liner past first base that rolled deep to the right field corner for an RBI triple from Ricky Presno. Peter Moforris followed with a chopper up the middle that plated Presno for the deciding run. The Falcons (9-1) then plated three unearned runs in the seventh to add a larger cushion.

“It’s a sign of a good team when they are going to make the adjustment and not panic,” Flanagan manager Ray Evans said. “We were losing the other day to West Broward 3-0 and then we scored nine unanswered. Today, we did what we had to do. Their guy was pretty good but we were able to hit some balls on the nose. It may take a bit of time but everything just sort of clicked, and our pitchers do a good job of holding the game in check.”

Behind the backdrop of Little Fenway’s fabled “Green Monster” in left field, a replica of the legendary wall from the Boston Red Sox’s stadium, both sides appreciated the opportunity to face off on such a unique playing field. Since Palm Beach Central does not have lights at their home field to accommodate night games, Atlantic Eagles manager Steve Wilson helped arrange for the two clubs to meet at a field befitting the caliber of play both sides bring.

Anthony Maldonado delivered a quality start for the Broncos.

“They are definitely the type of team we want to play,” Broncos manager Scott Benedict said. “They have tradition, they have good coaching and good players, so those are the kind of people you want to play. It’s a good experience for our team and we were able to work it out and get this ball park here since we don’t have lights. It was a really tight, hard-fought game for a long time until things kind of fell apart for us at the very end.”

Although the two clubs have only met up twice over the last five years, it is a friendly rivalry that goes way back. Evans and Benedict have played some big games over the years, and the two clubs always seem to bring out the best in one another.

“Scotty and I go way back to when we were winning state titles in ’05 and ’06, and we went back in ’07. We always had to match up with them, and we had some really good games back then,” Coach Evans recalled. “So we try to play every year or every other year, and he said he had a great venue. Look at this place; what a beautiful field for us to play at. So we’re real happy to come up here. He has a good team and these guys were solid. It was a good game.”

Although both sides had numerous opportunities with runners on base over the first four frames, the opposition kept making the necessary things to keep it scoreless early on. After Flanagan finally broke through with a pair of runs in the fifth, the Broncos (5-6-1) responded right back to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the same inning.

Hunter Gunn puts the ball in play in the sixth.

Brandon Whelan got things going with a liner to center field for a leadoff single. Jacob Shue worked a walk and AJ Gallicchio delivered his second hit of the night on a great bunt single that loadws the bases. Two batters later Connor Power sent a liner past the shortstop for an RBI single that scored Whelan. But Palm Beach Central was unable to sustain the rally, nor plate any more runs.

“We are going to have to get better in all phases every day, and hopefully by the end of the season when the playoffs come around we can be a team to be in contention to move on in the postseason,” Benedict said. “I think tonight our main problem was we didn’t have the ability to come up with a big hit. We had guys on second and third, and had bases loaded with less than two outs, and we need to get them in. That would have made a big difference for us tonight. But all the way around, mentally and physically, we just need to keep getting better every day.”

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