Cypress Bay Aims To Re-Establish Itself As A Force

Jeremy Tache knows the Cypress Bay baseball team has seen better days. The Lightning pitcher knows the team won a state title in 2004 and was good from the day the school opened two years earlier, going to the regional semifinals in its inaugural season.

Since those early years of the program, success has been on and off. After two consecutive seasons hovering around the .500 mark, Tache and the rest of the Lightning are working to make sure 2013 isn’t as lackluster and are hoping to return to the regionals for the first time since 2009.

The Lightning, which was 9-11 last year and 11-10 the previous season, first knows it has to better its 2012 district mark of 4-6. Miramar was the only District 8A-12 team Cypress Bay didn’t have a problem with last year, beating them by a combined score of 17-0 over two games.

Tache isn’t satisfied with his team’s performance last year and resumes his role this year as the team’s ace. He went 2-6 with 38 strikeouts in 44.2 innings last season.

“My goal is to be better than the previous year not only as an individual but as a team,” Tache said. “I hope we can improve our record from last year. That’s the most important thing. I think if myself and the rest of the starting pitchers can eat up a lot of innings, it’ll help us out and keep the pitching staff low and keep us in games.”

The staff has taken a hit this year with the loss of Brandon Cable, who went 3-3 with 33 strikeouts in 31 innings. Cable is among four seniors who graduated. But four pitchers who saw innings last year are back. Among them is Ji Woo, who threw 9.1 innings with 18 strikeouts.

“We have the same people from last year, so the pitchers are getting more experience so I expect a better outcome from last year,” Woo said. “We just need to have that consistency and mentality to win ballgames even after the regular season.”

Woo and Tache point to a lack of leadership last year with just four seniors, but both said they have seen better guidance from the older players like themselves this year. Both are seniors and plan to be leaders.

“As a player, I like to go out there and give 100 percent and win every battle,” Tache said. “That’s the big thing we have to do whether it’s every pitch, every at-bat. Each part of the game is it’s own individual battle and you have to win every single one of them. That’s the type of mentality we have to have and the type of mentality I’ll have going out there as a pitcher.”

Tache said with leadership in place, the team can come together more to focus on winning district games. To do better in those games, the team will be looking to better its .246 batting average from last year. The team lost its top hitter, Andrew Paredes, to graduation. He hit .434 and scored 14 runs. But last year’s RBI leader, Christian Pena, is back. He drove in 11 runs and hit .286.

Short stop Danny Cepeda said the team’s offense needs a lot of work if the team is going to be a contender this year.

“We need to start hitting more, practicing more and looking at videos,” Cepeda said. “We need to be more aggressive running the bases and more aggressive when we’re up to bat.”

Cepeda, who had just seven hits in 29 at-bats last year, said the program also can stand to have more depth by attracting more players to the team.

“We need to get more players in the school,” he said. “We don’t have enough baseball players in the school.”

Until that happens, the team will focus on the players it has and will continue to keep the attitude up-tempo. Tache believes his teammates are in it to win it and showed last year even a sub-par effort, they can compete and make the playoffs.

“With a lot of returning players this year, I feel like we’ll come out with some fight and shock a lot of people,” Tache said. “I think this year, this team will play every game down to the wire and keep every game close and hopefully win a lot of them. It all starts with the effort. We have a lot of talent out here. As long as everybody gives the same effort that we know we can give and play the way we’ve been playing in practice, then good things will happen.”

Tache has a lot of respect for the competitors in the district, calling it probably the most competitive in the area with teams that can beat anyone on any given day.

“I think West Broward and Flanagan have had more success of late, but I think we’re ready to come back and be one of those forces to be reckoned with again,” he said. “They’re not taking us as seriously as they should.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!