Broward Teams Taking Different Approaches To Fall Season

Coaches and players across Broward County generally have the same philosophies when it comes to fall ball and how it differs from the spring.

Wins and losses take a back seat to showcasing skills and conditioning as players are trying to prove themselves to their coaches and put themselves in position to compete for a starting spot.

“As a coach, my main concern is getting our baseball program ready to compete for the spring season,” Coral Glades head coach Jorge Miranda said. “During the fall, conditioning and lifting are a big part of our program, as well as playing in a fall league. The fall league allows our players to get repetitions at game speed, pitchers to work on stamina, and allows coaches to see how players react on their own in different game situations. We treat fall baseball much like an MLB club would treat spring training.”

Over at Fort Lauderdale, veteran head coach Terry Portice said he uses the fall to see which players might replace the seniors who graduated earlier in the year.

One of Portice’s players, senior third baseman/pitcher Alex De La Cruz, said the fall “gives us a chance to get all the kids on the team working and to see what they can do.”

Zion Lutheran’s Eric Hepple, who transferred over the summer from Highlands Christian, said “the coaches need to see who is going to be where in the field, where in the batting order, what the starting rotation is, who is going to be the closer and get them ready for the spring season.”

As coaches evaluate their teams, players have chances to compete they may not have in the spring.

“Fall games are far more instructional with better opportunities for all players to get on the field,” Portice said. “The spring is all about competition and preparing the team to advance past districts.”

At Coral Glades, Miranda has a rotation of seven hitters who get two at-bats, and then he puts in a second set of seven players.

“Our substitution patters are very free,” Miranda said. “We might have alternating short stops out there for every inning. In the spring, we put out the nine to 10 guys who give us the best chance to win. In the fall, we look to develop our players while giving them reps at game speed.”

Coaches and players, for the most part, said they handle game situations differently in the fall than they would in the spring.

Zion Lutheran coach Jose Piedra, entering his third year directing the Lions, said he wants to see how players approach hitting on their own. He said he wants to see the process they use, regardless of the result.

“I want them to learn the game themselves without it being dictated or given to them,” he said.

Coral Glades’ Alex Kline, a senior outfielder/pitcher, said when he’s on the mound, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the fall or the spring. He’s going to battle either way. “When I’m on the mound, I usually just throw hard every game,” Kline said. “I’m always relaxed, but I don’t down the tempo.”

Portice said he likes to use more pinch-runners in the fall, but otherwise, “game situations are handled fundamentally the same as I would in season.”

De La Cruz said the fall gives players a chance to prove themselves in tough situations and players are given more leeway to try to get out of the jams.

Although games may not be as intense in the fall as they are in the spring, coaches and players agree that a serious approach will help get everyone prepared for the real deal in the spring when district games can make or break a season.

“In the fall, players think it is supposed to be more laid back,” Hepple said. “That is not the case because you need to get better. If you slack off just because its fall, you will not get any better.”

That attitude mirrors the evolution of fall ball from being nonexistent or insignificant to being a key component to success in the spring. More and more schools are participating in the fall and giving players who compete in the summer a steppingstone to the spring.

Piedra said when he graduated in 1993, “it was the spring and then we played legion ball. Now players have the luxury of playing year round at different levels of competition, so it has progressed and gotten better. And it’s only going to get better.”

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