Flara delivers

Nathan Hutchinson
Register Sports Editor

BEREA April 29, 2008 12:12 pm

— Ben Flara was determined to finish what he started.
And with the outcome of an emotional cross-town rivalry hanging in the balance, he was able to deliver a clutch performance that wrapped up a historic victory.
Flara struck out the final two batters to end a late rally as Berea Community hang on for a 8-5 win at Madison Southern. The right-hander scattered 10 hits while picking up the complete-game victory and also hit a three-run home run as the Pirates (8-9) defeated the Eagles (2-19) for the first time in more than a decade.
“I just had to dig deep and pitch my hardest,” Flara said of the seventh inning.
Berea took a five-run by scoring three times in the top of seventh before the Eagles mounted a comeback. Phillip Acres led-off the inning with solo home run and Ben Slater later added an RBI single.
Southern had runners on second and third with one out, but Flara responded by punching out Jacob Agee and Andrew Mills.
“Flara battled and battled,” Berea coach Bill Smallwood said. “It took him three innings to get his curveball over on a regular basis. He was hanging a lot of them.”
Berea never trailed and took the lead with a five-run second inning. Jacob Gilbertson singled, Chris Adams reached on a fielder’s choice, then Jared Rigsby added a two-run single.
Flara followed with a blast over the left-center field wall.
“It was a fastball and it was a little bit low,” Flara said. “But, that’s where I like it. It was just a nice smooth swing.”
Southern got a two-run home run from James Royal and then scored another run in the fourth on an RBI single from Acres.
Logan Bitnell had two hits and John Helton, Jacob Webster, John Baugh and Mills each had a hit as Southern stranded nine runners, including two each in the second, third, fourth and seventh innings.
“They didn’t give up, but we just missed a lot of opportunities,” Southern coach Brandon Watkins said. “We had two guys get picked off and we just don’t execute. We have to execute from top to bottom to be successful.”
After a short rain delay, Chris Kidd, Flara and Ben Miller all had hits as Berea took advantage of two errors to pick up what would turn out to be some very important insurance runs.
Miller had two hits and every starter with the exception of Logan Hester scored at least once for the Pirates.
“It was a good team effort,” Smallwood said. “A lot of guys got in the action. Chris Adams had a couple of hits. I’m just real impressed.”
Ryan Centers started and went the first 3 1/3 innings for Southern, allowing five runs on four hits, while striking out one and walking three. Acres pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, while striking out four and walking two.
Berea is set to return to action today at Frankfort. Southern is scheduled to travel to East Jessamine today.