Park Vista baseball coach Larry Greenstein smiled as he looked at the championship banners lining the outfield wall following his team’s 7-6 victory over host Flanagan in the Class 6A regional final.
“Looking at the wall of banners from 2004 to 2010, there have only been two teams to come out of this region go to the states – Park Vista and Flanagan,” Greenstein said, “and of course they have the edge. They have gone many times and won it.”
The Cobras (23-7) will play Tampa Alonso (21-5) in the Class 6A state semifinal 5 p.m. Monday at Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie.
It is Cobras’ third trip to the FHSAA state final four in the past four years. The Cobras defeated Flanagan in 2008 en route to a state runner-up finish when it lost to Lake Brantley 4-1. Park Vista lost to Miami Columbus 3-2 in the state semifinals in 2009. It didn’t make it out of the district tournament last season with its top pitchers out with arm injuries.
Park Vista’s trip to the state tournament includes road wins over Coral Springs, Jupiter and Flanagan.
Park Vista senior shortstop Trea Turner, a North Carolina State commit, hit his first home run of his four-year high school career to carry the Cobras past Flanagan.
“Jupiter beat us pretty bad,” Turner said. “It was embarrassing. We wanted to come out and hand it back to them and every since we have been beating the top teams in the state. We can win states if we play our game and believe in ourselves.”
They have a believer in Flanagan coach Ray Evans whose team was averaging 11 runs a game and batted .422 as a team.
“My hat goes off to that team,” said Evans, whose team was the No. 2-ranked team in the country at the time of the loss. “They are a great team. They fought just as well as we fought.”
