Photo gallery: Matanzas comes from behind to beat crosstown rival FPC

After leading the Pirates to their first season sweep over crosstown rivals Flagler Palm Coast, Matanzas junior Bobby Sparling declared, “We’re on top now!”

The Pirates (11-13) defeated the Bulldogs (9-15) 3-2 Thursday, April 27, at Matanzas.

“It definitely feels great, especially against them,” Sparling said. “I’ve played against them for three years now. There has been a lot of pain and misery until now. We got ‘em twice this year.”

After three scoreless innings, the Bulldogs got on the board with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Down to the their last four outs of the game, Pirates Ryan Thomas and Logan Wells hit two consecutive triples to tie the game. Then Corey Betts singled to send Wells home for the 2-1 lead, heading to the final inning.

At the top of the seventh, Emerson Cheney scored for the Bulldogs to tie the game at 2-2. But, in the last inning of the game, with two runners on first and second base, Sparling knocked a single to outfield, allowing the second-base runner to

reach home plate for the walk-off win.

“Well, we had lost four in a row and wasn’t feeling good about ourselves,” Sparling said, “so we really needed it.”

“We should feel fortunate, considering the fact that they had a lead-off runner on in almost every inning,” head coach Jim Perry said. “And we kind of got out of sorts on defense. But, when you’re trying to build a championship program, you have to have a championship atmosphere, and that’s what it was today.”

Earlier in the season, Matanzas beat FPC for the first time at FPC, and yesterday’s win made it a first that Matanzas swept the Bulldogs.

To see more photos, click here: http://www.palmcoastobserver.com/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-matanzas-beats-fpc-3-2?time=1493392320