Coral Glades Looking To Continue Its Progression in 2013

After several years of frustration of trying to crack the top two spots in the district, Coral Glades finally broke through last year and finished second going into the district tournament.

But in the end, it was only frustration that Coral Glades felt by ultimately losing 10-0 to a perennial thorn its side, Douglas.

The Jaguars are hoping for a better finish this year and know the areas in which they need to improve to make the regional playoffs. Behind a handful of solid returning players, Glades will count on some promising players coming in from the junior varsity team to help it swim rather than sink in District 8A-11.

“To be more successful this year, we have to improve our pitching,” senior pitcher Jacob Melton said. “We’ve got to be solid all seven innings in every game. Right now, it doesn’t look like we may be as strong as we were last year, but we need to work on that as well as we need to get some offense because we lost some good hitters and need kids to step up. In order to compete with all the teams in our district, we need to eliminate errors in the field and make sure we get some offense going so we can score runs and make sure our pitchers throw strikes so we can win games.”

Senior Tyler Steiner, a starting catcher since his sophomore year, said he will “try to be a leader, get the kids up when they’re down, don’t let them be down. That’s been our downfall the past couple of years. One thing goes wrong, and it’s kind of a domino effect. We’ve just got to relax more and have fun, not let bad, negative things get to us as much. We’ve just got to shake it off and turn the page.”

Melton has been tabbed to be the team’s ace this season, replacing Alex Kline, who graduated after a senior season in which he struck out 67 in 48.2 innings and posted a 3.31 ERA, winning four games. Melton had a strong junior season, going 5-1 with 47 strikeouts in 38.1 innings. His ERA was just 0.55.

“Hopefully I can help out the team on the mound, pitching some good games against good competition,” Melton said. “Hopefully I can also do that with the bat, too. Hopefully I can be a solid player we can rely on.”

Jaguars manager Jorge Miranda, going into his fifth year at the helm, will be counting on Melton to do as well or better than his spectacular junior year.

“Having Jacob come back — even though we lost Alex, who was pretty much our horse, he threw all the big games — Jacob has been a very solid pitcher since his freshman year for us,” Miranda said. “He threw some big games as a freshman, didn’t get enough time on the mound as a sophomore, but he had an outstanding junior year, much like what happened with Alex his junior year. We will count on him to do a lot of good things for us on the mound. Wherever he can take us, he’s going to be our number one guy.”

The Jaguars will rely on Melton to come through at the plate as well. He batted .340 with 16 runs last season. Since then, he’s gotten bigger, adding 15 to 20 pounds of muscle, which should add a few mph onto his velocity.

“Not only does he do it on the mound for us, but he’s going to hit for us also probably third or fourth,” Miranda said. “He’s not your typical four hitter, but my philosophy is we don’t want our four-hole or our three-hole guy to strike out much, and he puts the ball in play and that’s going to be a big plus for us.”

Beyond Melton are three junior varsity players moving up with whom Miranda is impressed. The player who is being eyed for the number two spot is TJ Williams. Michael Grey and Zach Thompson are the other two pitchers.

“TJ had an outstanding JV season,” Miranda said. “He had the opportunity to play for me in the South Florida Elite 16-and-under, and that team made the playoffs in the two biggest summer tournaments. So he gained a lot of experience pitching in big-time games with a lot of college scouts out there. In terms of experience, I think he’s ready to step into that number two role, but you never know. He’s still a sophomore. We’re hoping that he matures a lot quicker, and we think we’re pretty deep.”

In addition to Kline, the other two big losses for the Jaguars were first baseman Frank Rodriguez, who hit .322 and scored 15 runs, and third baseman Nick Ferreiro, who hit .370 and had a team-leading 18 RBI.

The Jaguars are strong up the middle with returning short stop Nick Diaz, returning second baseman Thomas Santarcangelo and three-year starter Steiner, who Miranda said has “developed into one of the better defensive catchers in our district. He’s got a pro body. He hasn’t hit as much as we needed him to hit, but we didn’t need him to hit his sophomore year. His junior year, he stepped it up a bit, so we expect big things out of him.”

Miranda said Diaz has “some speed and is a good solid glove. He anchors our defense up the middle, and that’s good to have. He’s our leadoff guy who will get on base and steal some bases and get the job done for us. He had some big shoes to fill last year because he was replacing an All-County kid, a Division II All-Conference kid in Oliver Christensen. And he did an admirable job at it. I expect a lot of big things from him.”

Santarcangelo moved from being a catcher on JV to second base on varsity, and “he improved himself so much from the fall to the spring that he only made three errors,” Miranda said. “He’s not flashy, he just makes a play. Anything that’s hit at him, he’s going to make the play. He is coming off of surgery, but we expect him to be fully recovered by the spring.”

The team is evaluating players this spring to fill in the holes at first and third as well as the entire outfield. The competition for positions is strong, and the team is generally confident those spots will be filled with solid players come spring.

“We’ve been working hard practicing every day, and I think everybody is going to be ready by season and definitely we’ll be able to compete this year,” Melton said. “We have a bunch of kids who are working hard outside of practice, outside of school. We’ve got a lot of kids who are at the gym. I see them at the gym usually every day, especially our catcher and outfielders. We’re basically a family. In school, we pretty much rely on each other. We help each other out with any problems that we have. We have a family atmosphere and I think it’ll be good for the season and help us get through some tough situations.”

The players are familiar with one another and can anticipate how certain situations are going to play out, Santarcangelo said.

“A lot of us have been playing together for a while,” he said. “We pretty much know what everyone’s going to be doing. We all know what kind of players we are.”

The camaraderie, team unity and preparation together will be factors in how well the Jaguars handle their district competition. Miranda likes the team’s chances again this year.

“We have a shot,” he said. “It’s a tough district, but Coral Springs graduated 13 seniors, Douglas graduated almost their entire pitching staff even though offensively they’re going to be good. Taravella always plays tough. Even Deerfield Beach. Those guys always come out. They might not play well one game, but they’re just pesky and they don’t go away. And Piper and South Plantation, it’s tough for them, but they’re a lot more competitive than what we had two years ago when we had Boyd Anderson and Coconut Creek. So it’s a lot more balanced district I believe, and it’ll be a very interesting year.”

Off the field, the Jaguars are planning to get involved in the community and will be offering their assistance at a soup kitchen as well as participating in a breast cancer awareness fundraiser being hosted by West Broward on Oct. 27. To get ready for that, Glades has sported pink shirts with the words “Don’t let breast cancer steal 2nd base” on them.

Miranda said when West Broward manager Sergio Ambros asked him if he wanted to be involved in the fundraiser, Miranda jumped at the chance.

“He asked me to be part of it, and I said without a doubt, absolutely, yes,” Miranda said. “It’s good for them. There’s a lot of teams out there doing stuff in the community. We like that, and we want to be part of that. Part of my job and that of my coaching staff is that we help them become future professionals at whatever they chose to do. Some of them might go on to play college baseball. Some of them might not, but they’ll be productive citizens. And that’s one thing that we are very proud of here at Coral Glades. We try to do it the right way.”

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