Freshman Montalvo Propels Coral Springs To 6-5 Win Over Wellington

“I was a little nervous.”

That was how freshman Michael Montalvo explained his first night in the Coral Springs Colts lineup. Luckily for Montalvo, Coral Springs is loaded with veteran leadership that sensed that nervousness after the freshman struck out in his first high school baseball at-bat in the third inning of the Colts’ preseason game versus Wellington.

“They were telling me to keep my cool and to calm down,” said Montalvo, when asked what head coach Frank Bumbales and the Colts’ senior leaders were telling him after that strikeout.

That advice paid off in the next inning. After Wellington built a 2-0 lead, Montalvo strode to the plate with the Colts trailing 2-1 and the bases loaded in the fourth. What happened next is a moment the freshman will never forget. On a team that is a two-time district champion, Montalvo showed he belonged when he laced a three-run triple into the right-center field gap to give Coral Springs a 4-3 lead, one it would never relinquish en route to a 6-5 win over the Wolverines.

“He was a little tense in the first at-bat,” said head coach Frank Bumbales. “The guys calmed him down. We had the captains go over and talk to him and tell him to relax. Then I went over to him and just told him to trust his ability, to go out there and have fun, and let your ability take over, and that’s what he did.”

Coral Springs’ offense started slowly thanks in large part to Wellington starter David Koos, who threw three innings of shutout ball. The Colts scored five of their six runs in the fourth inning, otherwise overshadowing a strong performance by Wolverines pitchers. Outside of the fourth inning, Wellington pitchers threw six innings of two-hit ball.

Despite the loss, Wellington coach Scott Riddle was pleased with the way his team performed against some of the top teams in Broward this week, and he understands the significance of facing Coral Springs, and Douglas, which the Wolverines beat Wednesday.

“It was nice to get a couple of teams that we know we’ll be seeing down the line,” Riddle said. “It’s nice to play teams that the guys get up for. This team (Coral Springs) was obviously a state contender last year, and they’ve got everybody back, so we knew we had to play well, and I think outside of one inning, we did that.”

After relinquishing the lead in the fourth, Wellington kept their poise and battled right through the last out. In the seventh, Alex Maxson surprised everyone on the Wolverines bench when he blasted a solo home run to right. The drive cut the lead to 6-5, and when lead-off hitter Tyler Corbin walked, the Wolverines were again in business. A perfectly executed sacrifice bunt by Koos put the tying run on second, but Colts reliever Joey Silvani worked out of the jam by getting the Wellington’s three and four hitters to ground out.

The competition was something that Bumbales has seen his team handle before, and two wins in tight games against Palm Beach Central and Wellington this week confirmed the coach’s trust in his team moving forward.

“This is what they do all the time,” said Bumbales, speaking about his team’s comeback win. “We don’t duck anybody. We go out and play the best teams we can play against…They just always come out ready to play. We’ve got depth, we’ve got defense, we’ve got pitching, and we’ve got hitting. We have what we need to win. It’s just a matter of going out and executing. In this tournament, we beat two quality teams. These guys have a lot of fight in them.”

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