Crusaders Cruise To 10-0 Win Over Hialeah Gardens

Heading into this 2013 season, there has been a fair amount of hype regarding the Coral Springs Christian Academy baseball team.

On Monday afternoon in the opening round of the HSBN Preseason Classic, the Crusaders helped to prove that in this case the hype is very real, and also completely warranted.

Coral Springs Christian got a dominant performance from its ace pitcher and from its offense as the Crusaders cruised past Hialeah Gardens 10-0 in a shortened contest played at North Broward Prep.

“It’s all about what can you do in the situation you’re in to help the team,” Crusaders manager Matt Cleveland said. “They did a good job of that today and I am happy.”

Junior right-hander Devin Meyer helped set the tone early as he struck out the side in the top of the first inning. Meyer combined with relievers Ricky Miranda and Joey DePalo to hold the Gladiators without a hit in the contest, and he earned the victory in tossing three scoreless frames while striking out seven of the nine batters he faced.

“They are a really good ball club, and clearly they have a lot of pitching talent,” Hialeah Gardens’ manager Tino Burgos said. “We really had wanted to keep it simple and just make plays behind our pitchers. At the end of the day we just did not do enough. We could not make plays in key moments.”

The Crusaders wasted little time in staking their ace with the lead, as Eric Hepple turned on a pitch and deposited the ball deep over the left field fence for a three-run home run in the bottom of the first. Touki Toussaint and James Buckley both scored on the play, after both players were hit by pitches to lead off the frame.

Coral Springs Christian added to that lead in the second inning, when this time it was Toussaint delivering a two-run shot over the right field fence to push the lead to 6-0.

Alex Widdicombe also scored in the inning, after reaching on a one-out single and eventually coming around to cross home on a passed ball.

Toussaint finished 2-for-2 with a pair of runs, while Hepple went 2-for-3. Every starter for the Crusaders reached base.

“We try to focus on playing the game the right way,” Cleveland said. “It’s about the little things: being able to be hit by a pitch, get a two-strike hit and not try to over-swing there. From one to fifteen we have good players, so we look as the whole season as the preseason to get better everyday.”

Hiealeah Gardens continued to push and fight to stay in the game, limiting the damage just enough to give themselves a chance for a comeback. The team’s brightest spot was its defense, which came up with several impressive plays while executing the small things in between.

But even after the Gladiators managed some baserunners on walks with their final at bats, the Crusaders pitchers were simply too sharp to give way.

“We got in this tournament to get tested right away,” Burgos said. “This tournament is nice with all the exposure, but with that comes better competition. Today was not all bad. I’m not happy with the outcome, but I’m not completely disappointed either. There were a lot of coachable moments that I can use going forward and hopefully improve on.”

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