Reagan Falls To West Broward In Titan Classic Opener

Reagan has been in some scrapes lately. After tying Coral Gables 9-9 on Tuesday, the Bison came back the next day to take a 2-1 lead against Hialeah into the fifth inning before falling 7-2.

Saturday night against West Broward in the Titan Classic opener at Nova High School in Davie, the Bison found themselves in another battle, taking on a team that was needing a win after a tough district loss the night before.

West Broward bounced back against Reagan, but staying true to their nickname, the Bobcats had to claw their way against the scrappy Bisons and scratch out a 2-1 win.

The win puts West Broward (8-1) in the Titan Classic semifinals against Fort Lauderdale (8-1) at 4 p.m. Monday at Nova High. Nova (8-0) and Monarch (9-0) will play at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal. The winners will meet in Tuesday’s championship at 7:30 p.m. Reagan will play Cooper City at 1 p.m. Monday at Nova High.

Saturday night, West Broward took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and had to fight all seven innings to remain ahead. Mike Mordente led off with a single but was erased when Danny Pardo got on with a fielder’s choice. Mark McGinnity followed with a single before Gio Ruiz’s base hit plated Pardo. McGinnity then came home on Xavier Beltran’s sacrifice fly to center field.

West Broward’s Mark Mendez shined in his first career start as he kept the Bison (4-4-1) scoreless until the fifth. Joey Diaz led off with a double and came home on Andres Castillo’s sacrifice fly. Reagan had a chance to tie it up as Michael Diaz followed with bunt for a base hit and got to second on a error. A wild pitch put him at third, but Mendez struck out the next batter to quash the threat.

Mendez was relieved in the sixth by Marc Hadley, who gave the Bobcats two shutout innings to preserve the win.

Franklin Reyes was equally as effective for the Bison as he gave Reagan six strong innings, allowing four hits. Three of those came in the first and the other in the second. Reyes was the bright spot in an otherwise lackluster performance for the Bison.

Reagan assistant coach JC Huguet, who was filling in for head coach Jesse Rodriguez as Rodriguez was celebrating the birth of his second child, said Saturday’s game was similar to the games his team has had lately.

“This was a great game with good pitching,” Huguet said. “There were plays made for both sides. We’ve played a lot of close games lately.”

As much as Reagan needed a win, West Broward needed a way to rebound from losing 9-0 to Flanagan on Friday night.

“We definitely wanted to bounce back,” West Broward coach Sergio Ambros said. “It wasn’t pretty, but I thought we made a lot of big plays and our pitching was outstanding. It was extremely important to get the ‘W.’ “

Hadley, who pitched two innings the night before against Flanagan, agreed winning was “pretty important. We didn’t want to think about what happened last night. We said we just got to stay calm and move on.”

Hadley said his approach coming into pitch for Mendez was to “just come in and do what I do: stay calm and shut them down, keep us in the game and come away with the win.”

Ambros said he “knew they (Reagan) would give us a game” after seeing their performances lately and remembering them beating West Broward 11-9 in a game last year.

Despite the win, Ambros said his team still is having trouble coming up with the key, timely hit.

“We didn’t come up with an opportunity to drive runs in, just like last night, the big two-out hit, the big RBI,” he said.

OTHER TITAN CLASSIC GAMES
NOVA 11, HOLLYWOOD HILLS 1: Troy Massaro’s three-run home run keyed a seven-run third inning for the Titans.
FORT LAUDERDALE 7, COOPER CITY 6: The Flying L’s used a six-run sixth to take the lead and then barely held off the Cowboys. JR Alexander doubled and scored twice.
MONARCH 7, SOUTH PLANTATION 2: Nick Sposa had three hits to pace the Knights, who stayed unbeaten at 9-0.

MONDAY’S SCHEDULE
At Nova: Reagan vs. Cooper City, 1 p.m.; Semifinal: Monarch vs. Nova, 4 p.m.; Semifinal: West Broward vs. Fort Lauderdale, 7 p.m. At South Plantation: South Plantation vs. Hollywood Hills, noon.

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