Atwater/Merced Yammers sweep Clovis to clinch berth in American Legion State tournament
Kadon Floro is no stranger to big games after playing four years at Buhach Colony High and playing at the American Legion State Tournament twice with the Merced Volunteers.
Floro, who is the younger brother of Miami Marlins reliever Dylan Floro, delivered another big-time performance, pitching a complete-game shutout to start out the best-of-three American Legion Area 3 Championship series on Thursday afternoon in a 1-0 victory over the Clovis Nighthawks at Atwater’s Memorial Ballpark.
Floro set the tone for the night as the Atwater/Merced Yams swept the Nighthawks with an 8-6 win in the second game to punch their ticket to the American Legion State Tournament at Buchanan High in Clovis July 24-27.
“Kadon gave us a lift that first game,” said Yams teammate Julian Natividad-Lopez. “Kadon is our big guy, our emotional guy. We really fed off him and that emotion carried over to the second game.”
Floro’s performance came against a familiar face in the other dugout Nighthawks manager Rollo Adams.
Adams had been the longtime manager of the Merced Volunteers American Legion team before recently moving to Fresno. Adams started the Clovis team this summer, picking up many talented players from Central Section powerhouse schools like Buchanan and Bullard.
Robbie Sanchez brought back the Yammers American Legion team and picked up players mainly from Atwater, Buhach Colony and El Capitan high schools.
The Yammers came in as underdogs against a Nighthawks team that featured Oregon-bound third baseman Drew Smith and Cal Irvine-bound shortstop JP Acosta.
“About half their team is from Buchanan,” Sanchez said.
That’s what made Floro’s performance in the first game so special. The right-hander gave up just six hits, struck out eight and walked just one batter.
“They have quite a team,” Floro said. “The thing about pitching is you can’t care about who you’re pitching against. You have to stay present. (Catcher Dan Murphy) and me were hitting spots and executing pitches.”
Mitch Hunter drove in the only run of the game with a two-out single in the bottom of the second inning and Floro made the lead stand up for seven innings.
“Kadon is just a bulldog,” Sanchez said.
The second game was intense as both teams had to be warned multiple times by the umpires to stop chirping back and forth.
Natividad-Lopez homered as part of a three-run sixth inning for the Yammers and emphatically stepped on home plate. The Yammers took a 7-3 lead, but Clovis’ Michael Collins destroyed a three-run homer over the right-field wall in the bottom of the sixth to pull the Nighthawks within 7-6. Collins made a derogatory gesture toward the Yams’ dugout when he crossed home plate.
“They were chirping a lot,” Natividad-Lopez said. “We let our game do the talking. We weren’t going to let them get in our heads.”
The Yammers tacked on a big insurance run in the top of the seventh inning as Fernando Ruvalcaba hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Xxavier Ponce to extend the lead to 8-6.
The Yammers received some big relief pitching performances from Elijah Shupehrd, Mitch Hunter and Cooper Lantz. Lantz got the final out in the bottom of the seventh inning after walking the bases loaded.
“It means a lot to go to state,” Floro said. “Especially with these good boys here. Hopefully we can something at state, maybe bring a title home.”
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
