Douglas Aiming To Return To Championship Form

These are unfamiliar waters for the Douglas baseball team. The Eagles and their fans have grown accustomed to winning district championships, but the past three years, Douglas has passed the district torch to Coral Springs and now the Eagles are hungry to get back on top.

Last season, former American Heritage manager Todd Fitz-Gerald took over the reigns at Douglas, and it has been a process for Fitz-Gerald to get his players to fully understand his system.

“Last year, everything was new,” said Fitz-Gerald. “I spent the year installing a system and getting to know players, and the players spent the season getting used to the way me and my coaching staff does things. It was a learning process for all, and now with a year under our belt, I think things are running much more smoothly.”

The 2013 version of the Eagles team will be much different than last year’s squad. In 2012, Douglas rode the arms of John Valek, Brandon Dreichler and Jonathan Lipinski. The three seniors combined to go 15-2 and helped the pitching-strong Eagles to a 2.94 ERA. All three of those standout pitchers have graduated, and it has left a void on the mound. Seniors combined last year to throw 137 out of 150 innings for Douglas.

“Those guys are going to be tough to replace,” said Fitz-Gerald. “We’ve spent the fall evaluating guys. This year, we may have to piece it together, either lefty-righty match-ups, or an inning here, an inning there. We have three lefties that haven’t played in a while for various reasons, and they all look good right now, so that will definitely help us out on the mound.”

The lefties Fitz-Gerald was speaking about are juniors Connor Jacobs and Jake Meidnik, along with senior Zack Meidnik. Although the three are expected to boost a staff that will look to help get the Eagles back on top in District 8A-11, it is expected that Austin Kramer will be the top pitcher on the Douglas staff in 2013.

With the lack of experience on the mound, Douglas will turn to its defense to make plays beyond the young pitchers.

“We don’t have anybody that’s going to throw 90,” said Fitz-Gerald. “But we have guys that are going to throw strikes, and this year, we don’t need a guy throwing 90 because I expect we will have an outstanding defense, so as long as we throw strikes, we should be fine.”

Although the pitching may experience some growing pains, the offense is projecting one of the best lineups in Broward County. The Eagles have five returning starters in their lineup who hit over .350 last year, and one of those players is Derek Fritz, who was second in the county with his .507 batting average. Fritz has been with Fitz-Gerald for three years and was instrumental last season in helping other players learn Fitz-Gerald’s system.

This year, Fritz will be one of the players who opposing pitchers will fear the most. In addition to the .507 average, Fritz drove in 18 runs last season. Despite being with his coach for three years, Fritz knows there will be no letting up this season.

“There is no comfort level with Coach Fitz,” said Fritz. “Everyone is on edge with him. We all have a job to do to make this team successful, and we all know what that job is. It’s up to us to go out and carry out the game plan and execute. His intensity sets the tone, and it keeps everyone in line.”

Hitting .507 is not an easy task, especially these days with the BBCOR bats, but Fritz believe his ceiling is even higher for the upcoming year.

“I think I can hit higher than .507,” Fritz said. “I’ve made some adjustments, and as long as I stayed focused, I don’t see why I can’t hit for a higher average.”

Helping Fritz on his quest to be a batting champion this year is the stacked lineup that will be protecting Fritz. Returning from last year’s squad that scored 165 runs are seniors KJ Mayo (.439, 17 RBI), Ryan Rudolph (.353), Michael Greenberg (.381, 14 RBI) and Luis Silvero (.367). Together, they form one of the most potent lineups around, and they know that producing at the dish will be an important piece to get the Eagles back to championship contention.

“We lost some key players,” said Mayo. “But we also have some new players coming in that can really step up big for us. We should have a lot more speed this season, and we have a lot of confidence in our offense. We just have to carry the offensive momentum from last year into this season.”

One of those new players Mayo was speaking about was catcher Dominic DiCaprio. The sophomore comes over from Coral Springs Christian and gives the Eagles yet another bat while also providing a solid option behind the plate.

Another addition to this year’s team comes over from Fitz-Gerald’s old stomping grounds at Heritage. Yorvis Torrealba will join a talented group that will be led, in part, by four-year starter Silvero. After watching his brother Louis roam center field for the Eagles, it is now the younger Silvero’s time to shine in that position.

Silvero has been around for all of the heartbreaking losses that Douglas has endured in recent years at the hands of Coral Springs, and in his senior season, he hopes to draw off the frustration of those losses to finally put Douglas back on top.

“We’ve played right with them the past few years, and each time, it seems like we’ve made those one or two mistakes, either mental or physical, that have cost us the games,” said Silvero. “This year, I think we have a nice mix of young players and experience, and as long as we play our game and execute, I see no reason why we can’t beat Springs and the other teams in our district.”

As is the case with all BCAA schools, Douglas is again strapped with the 20-game schedule. This year, the Eagles will play their 12 district games as well as three games in the Flanagan preseason tournament and four games in the Selective Recruiting Invitational during Spring Break. That leaves only one open date, which Fitz-Gerald chose to schedule against 3A state final four participants last year, American Heritage-Delray.

For Fitz-Gerald, the keys to the season boil down to a few simple ideas: “mental toughness and get stronger physically. If we accomplish those two goals, we can go as far as we want to go. The plan is in place, if the players follow it, the sky’s the limit.”

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