3A-14 Playoff Preview: A State Title Crusade

3A-14
Host: Highlands Christian

Monday, April 22nd

7PM – Game 1 – (5) Sagemont vs. (4) Westminster Academy

Tuesday, April 23rd

4PM – Game 2 – (3) Highlands Christian vs. (2) Calvary Christian
7PM – Game 3 – Game 1 winner vs. (1) Coral Springs Christian

Wednesday, April 24th

Rain Date

Thursday, April 25th

7PM – Championship – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner

Full stats for 3A-14 can be found on the 3A-14 Stats Page!

Overview – The obvious choice to come out of this district is Coral Springs Christian. Manager Matt Cleveland has slowly built the Crusaders into a powerhouse, with only a state championship missing from the mantle. To stop there, however, would be foolish in high school baseball. Calvary Christian has been the Crusaders’ biggest rival the past few years, and that does not figure to change in this year’s playoffs. Highlands Christian was much-improved over last season, and Westminster Academy has shown at times they can play with the county’s best. A young Sagemont team is hoping to spoil the party.

1. Coral Springs Christian – What’s not to like about the Crusaders. They are loaded with D-1 talent, yet that did not stop them from having one of the most successful regular seasons in school history. They can hit, score runs, play defense, and their biggest strength is on the mound, with an entire staff of arms that can get the best hitters on opposing teams out.

Take a look at the top five ERAs in the district, and it will be easy to see where the strength of this team lies. Devin Meyer (0.36), Touki Toussaint (0.82), Eric Hepple (1.13), and Colin Taylor (1.65), and one, three, four, and five, respectively in the district. As a team, the Crusaders have put up a miniscule 1.31 ERA. They have struck out 188 batters in 155 innings. Their WHIP of 1.08 indicates that not many batters reach base through the course of a game.

Offensively CS Christian filled out the stat sheet as well. Toussaint showed that he is multi-talented by adding a .415 batting average, five home runs, 28 RBIs, and 23 runs to his resume. The runs and bombs lead the team, while the RBIs are tied with Benito Santiago for tops on the team. Six of the Crusaders’ batters are hitting over .300. Hepple leads the team with seven doubles.

If teams can find a way to get the big bats in the middle of the order out, they will then have to worry about Pemron Burrows, who leads the team with 21 stolen bases. Toussaint also added 15 stolen bases.

Confidence may be the only thing Cleveland has to worry about with his squad, as they have lost two in a row heading into the playoffs next week.

2. Calvary Christian – The Eagles have been the chief rival of top-seeded Coral Springs Christian, and Calvary may be hoping that recent history repeats itself. The past two seasons, Calvary has owned the regular season against the Crusaders, only to see CS Christian steal the district title in the playoffs. Now, the Eagles will be looking to return the favor.

Calvary has not had much of a problem defeating their first round opponent this season. In two games against Highlands Christian, Calvary has won by a combined score of 26-3. If they can get by the Knights one more time, they would advance to regional play.

The best win of the season for the Eagles came on opening day, against #4 Flanagan.

The offense has been paced this season by Andrew Liberty and his .400 average. Nick Kumar (.343) led the team with 17 RBIs. Liberty was tops on the squad with 19 runs, 30 hits, and a .459 on-base percentage. Keith Oren (317), Nico Lares (.322), Luke Poirier (.297), and Andrew Gottfried (.295), also helped an Eagles offense that scored 110 runs on the year.

On the mound Gottfried posted a stellar 0.60 ERA, with a K/BB ratio of 33/5. Liberty was the team leader in wins with four, and Alec Berizzi spent a significant amount of time on the hill, posting a 2.86 ERA in 29.1 innings.

The team ERA of 2.57 gives Eagles fans a reason to believe they can compete with the Crusaders for the district title.

Winning the district this season is even more important than in recent seasons with several Palm Beach 3A-13 teams having down seasons.

3. Highlands Christian – The Knights position in the seedings may surprise some, but Manager Bruce Charlebois has done a nice job with his young squad. The team has had some trouble with their first round opponent, Calvary Christian, and will need to figure out a way to shut down an Eagles offense that scored 26 runs in two games.

Highlands has a budding star in Kirvin Moesquit, who hit .491 this season. Moesquit led the starters in average, on-base percentage, runs, hits, and his biggest asset may have been his speed. Moesquit stole 30 bases for the Knights in 2013.

Joseph Ortiz was another catalyst on the bases, stealing 14 of 15 bases and scoring 17 runs. Deion Rosalia hit .367, and tied for the team lead with Moesquit with 16 RBIs. Mitchell Carroll added 15 RBIs for the Knights.

The heavy lifting on the mound was done by Moesquit (28.2 IP), and Carroll (43.2 IP). Carroll struck out a team high 55 batters, and allowed less than a hit an inning. Moesquit led the team in wins and ERA (2.93).

The Knights finished the season on a 2-1-1 run, with a wins over Westminster and Sheridan Hills, and a tie with #15 Pine Crest.

4. Westminster Academy – The 1-6-1 district record for the Lions does not show what this team may be capable of come playoff time. Manager Nick James put together a difficult schedule for the Lions, with the hope that they would be battle tested come playoff time. Over the next week, James will find out of that strategy worked.

In order to get out of the district, Westminster will have to hold serve against Sagemont, and then defeat top-seeded Coral Springs Christian.

If the Lions are going to win their first game and then pull off an upset, it will have to be on the strength of their pitching. This season, the Lions staff has compiled a 3.11 ERA, and gave up less runs (101) than they scored (114). Weston Clemente led the staff with 44 innings pitched and a 2.55 ERA. Clemente struck out 54 batters in his 44 innings of work.

Blake Kidwell and Daniel Donofrio were also big on the mound for Westminster, posting 2.89 and 3.00 ERA’s, respectively. No Lions pitcher had more than one win on the season, but one of them will have to get hot for the team to advance.

Donofrio was also the team’s top hitter at .344. His 17 runs was second on the team in runs to Jeremy Viveros’ 20, and his 14 RBIs were also second, to Clemente’s 19. Clemente hit .333, and led the team with two home runs.

As a whole, the Lions hit .268, but made their hits count, scoring 114 runs. The team got on base at nearly a .400 clip, and that will have to stay around the number for Westminster to make a run at a district title.

The young team will graduate only three seniors at season’s end.

5. Sagemont – The youngest team in the district took their lumps under first-year Manager Wesley Morejon. The roster consists of three seniors and 15 underclassmen. To say the team was young is an understatement.

Despite the lack of experience, the Lions stayed in many of their games in 2013. Morejon has the team playing competitively, and has them upset-minded heading into their first round match-up with Westminster. The Lions will be armed with the knowledge in that game that they have already defeated Westminster once, 5-3, back in early March.

Brynn Martinez and Sean Iacono were the top two hitters at .410 and .382. iacono led the team with 25 hits, five doubles, and 18 runs. Ashton Martinez (.280), Edison Rodriguez (.280), Andres Vazquez (.282), and Stefan Revelo (.276), all helped the Lions score 90 runs in 18 games.

Sagemont will have to fight out of a slump heading into districts, having lost their final six games of the regular season.

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