Michael Broadens Southeast’s horizons
Florida advances to US championship with help of Broad’s powerful right arm

By David Graham-Caso
Special Correspondent

Wednesday’s U.S. semifinal between Boynton Beach, FL and Chandler, AZ was a match-up between a great pitcher and a great offense. Pitching won.

Florida’s Michael Broad had not allowed an earned run in his last 13 innings pitched, dating back to the Southeast regional tournament. Chandler had the best offense in the U.S. half of the bracket, hitting .329 as a team and scoring 23 runs over its three pool-play games.

Michael Broad shut down the Chandler offense, throwing a one-hit, complete-game victory over the West Champions. Boynton Beach will now advance to the United States Championship game with its 4-1 victory Wednesday evening in front of a 2003-record 21,500 spectators at Lamade stadium.

“Broad is a great pitcher,” said West manager Eddie Malone. “He shut us down, there is no doubt about that.”

Broad finished the game surrendering only one unearned run, while striking out 10. The fireballer was clocked throwing as much as 78-mph.

“He was bringing it tonight, baby,” said Broad’s manager Kenny Emerson. “He brought the ball real well tonight.”

Boynton got things going right off the bat. Leadoff man Devon Travis pulled a fastball down the leftfield line, which rattled around in the corner. Travis sped around the bases, sliding into third with a triple. The speedster came home on the next pitch, which Jordan Irene popped up to right. Irene’s sacrifice fly gave Boynton Beach a 1-0 lead.

“It is great to lead the game off with a triple,” Travis said. “Any time Michael is pitching, it is really comfortable to get him one run early.”

Arizona drew back to even with Florida in its half of the first when Tim Fowler brought in Cory Bernard with a two-out double.

“Arizona is a good team, we knew that it was going to be a good game tonight,” Emerson said. “It is supposed to be tough.”

Neither team would be able to get anything going offensively until the fourth inning. A no-out rally got two more in for Boynton Beach. A single by Michael Broad, a RBI double by Richie de Jesus and a RBI single by R.J. Neal brought in Broad and de Jesus. The inning nearly became more disastrous for Arizona pitcher Justin Rosales. With one out, there were two runners in scoring position and Patrick Mullen at the plate. Mullen went down on strikes, which brought up pinch hitter Andrew Weaver. Rosales blew three fastballs by the pinch hitter, ending the inning and effectively stopping the bleeding. Temporarily.

de Jesus added another run to the board for his squad in the fifth. The third baseman hammered a single into right-centerfield, brining Irene around to score Florida’s fourth run of the game. The one-run fifth made it 4-1, Boynton Beach. De Jesus finished the game 3-for-3 with two RBI.

Florida next faces the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between New England and Southwest. Broad would not be available to take the hill again unless his team wins the U.S. championship and advances to the World Series Championship game, Sunday at 6:30.

“I wanted to face a really good team to see where I stood in pitching, and tonight I did great,” Broad said. “I hope we make it to the Championship game so I can face another good team.”