CS Christian Wins Regional Game For First Time

It was a well-earned victory that made school history.

Beyond all other factors, the end result was a special group of players that have meant so much to their program led Coral Springs Christian Academy to its first-ever regional playoff victory.

But it was a final that left even the victors empathetic, after unforgiving weather altered the ultimate outcome of this contest.

Officially, Thursday’s Class 3A regional quarterfinal goes in the books as a 1-0 victory for host Coral Springs Christian Academy over American Heritage-Delray. The details offer a far different story, however, and one that unfolds like a Greek tragedy for any Stallions fans.

The Crusaders (21-6) cruised through six scoreless innings behind their junior ace Touki Toussaint, taking a 1-0 lead into the top of the seventh inning amidst a growing rainstorm that had finally arrived in the sixth after threatening the area all afternoon.

Down to their final swings, Heritage (13-14) rallied back to tie the score, before play was suspended when conditions worsened as the rain increased to a downpour.

When it became apparent that the game could not continue, the final ruling reverted the game back to the last completed inning of play, meaning the official record wiped clean all action past the completion of the sixth inning.

“We didn’t want to win it that way. I’ll take the win, but we empathize with them,” Crusaders Manager Matt Cleveland said. “I know how much hard work goes into a high school baseball season, and how much practice and dedication it takes to get to this point.”

Coral Springs Christian now awaits the winner of the game between Highlands Christian and Pope John Paul II, which has been repeatedly rescheduled already due to this week’s heavy storms.

It was not as easy for Stallions Manager Carm Mazza to explain such a decision to his team, especially to his ace Anthony Delaney, who had also pitched the entire game to match Toussaint’s efforts.

“It shouldn’t end that way. It’s a rule; but it’s not fair,” Mazza said. “It’s heart-breaking for all those kids. The umpires were just going by the book, but it was very hard to tell eighteen young men to go by the book rule after they battled all day. I’m proud of what they did; they never gave up. I’ve taught them to play to the last out, and that last out was never made.”

On the winner’s side, for the first time in the 43-year history of the school the Crusaders won a regional playoff game. Since 2006 the team had gone 0-5 in regional play, which included a tough loss to Summit Christian and Thursday’s opposing starter in Anthony Delaney, before the senior transferred to Heritage-Delray before this season.

This year’s group had come together to make their mark in team history, and Thursday’s victory now makes that official.

“It’s exciting, after working all summer, fall and since the beginning of the spring to get here,” said Toussaint. “We just try to take it day by day, be ourselves and work as a team and not as individuals. We got out of our groove the last two games and coach just made us all relax and think about all the stuff that we’ve been through, and everything we’ve been working for. We can’t just waste it.”

In his sixth start of the season in the biggest game of his young pitching career, Toussaint was every bit as good as advertised. The right-hander went just one batter over the minimum, allowing just a single to Todd Isaacs, who was then erased on an inning-ending double play, while also hitting Christian Bingo with a pitch.

“He’s the best I’ve seen,” Mazza admitted. “Touki was excellent; he threw three pitches for strikes. I give him credit and I tip my hat to him.”

The pro prospect showcased an arsenal of pitches and velocities, working ahead in most counts as he threw 66 of his 95 pitches for strikes. He finished with a dozen strikeouts.

“We talked this week and I told him to believe in himself. He took it upon himself to get ready and he told me had this,” Cleveland said. “He’s an honest kid and he tells me when he doesn’t have it too. So I slept good last night, because when he is on it is very hard to hit him.”

With Toussaint finding his groove on Thursday, Delaney’s performance became that much more important in keeping Heritage in the contest. Even despite getting into trouble in each of the first three innings of work, the senior pitched his way through each jam in making the most out of his tenth and final start of the season.

The Crusaders worked a run off the right-hander in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single from Benito Santiago that scored Pemron Burrows, after the centerfielder was hit by a pitch leading off.

Burrows advanced into scoring position when Toussaint ripped the first pitch he saw into centerfield for a single to bring up Santiago, as Toussaint was also 2-for-3 at the plate.

Anytime the team can manufacture a run against a bulldog like Delaney it will please Cleveland, but this particular instance was even more rewarding after the way he’s watched some of his players grow into their roles.

Just prior to the team’s Spring Break trip, the skipper had pulled Burrows aside and challenged him to assume the team’s leadoff role. Cleveland says the sophomore is the fastest he’s ever seen or coached, and his approach sets an example for even some of the older players.

Burrows helped set the tone for the offense right out of the gate, battling through an eight-pitch at-bat with Delaney before going down swinging. He then answered back with a single following another eight-pitch at-bat his second trip to the plate.

“The first thing I said was everybody needs to have at-bats like that,” Cleveland said. “I asked him after the game how many balls did he hit hard today, and he said none. But that’s the little things that win games like this. Then Benito also came through for us. He swung at a bad pitch, but that’s what we were able to do today.”

After the Crusaders scored, Delaney recovered to strike out the next two batters to strand two and keep it a one-run ball game.

When the Stallions were able to come back on him in the final frame, Toussaint prepared himself to settle in for as long as it took to beat this scrappy ball club.

“The game was really high intensity, and those kids wanted it,” Toussaint said. “It was a battle and I think it would have gone extra innings, to tell you the truth. We have great pitchers and they have great pitchers. It would have been whoever wanted it more.”

Even though the worsening weather conditions affected the playing field in that seventh inning, Toussaint and Cleveland both refused to make excuses after the Stallions were able to rally against their ace.

“Touki probably shouldn’t have gone out in the seventh and he probably shouldn’t have been pitching on that mound. But give them credit, because the batter’s box was sloppy too,” said Cleveland.

After the rain started in the sixth, Toussaint admitted he knew the mound would be in rough shape.

“You couldn’t land and it was really slippery,” said Toussaint. “I don’t know how the other kid did it. I kept getting my front foot down and I was flying open. I thought it was going to be bad, but not that bad where I was not able to land and push off.”

Although both coaches were aware that weather could and likely would affect the play Thursday, both programs went to much trouble in a short amount of time in order to give the teams a chance to get it in and not delay playing any longer than necessary.

But Mazza admits that he never even considered the outcome as a possibility, while also expressing hope he can help enact some change in such a rule.

“I never thought it would revert back in a do-or-die game like that,” Mazza said. “There is no appeal, so we have to move forward. But we’re going to go talk to the state, and hopefully it’s a rule we can get changed so nothing like this happens to another team again. Hopefully we can get a following from people who love high school baseball like we do and we can get this right. I don’t ever want another team to feel like this.”

While Cleveland understands it is not an ideal victory, for his team the season now moves forward.

“Our goal was to win this championship game,” he explained. “We’ve got to go one at a time, so today was our championship game. Now we’ve got to go get ready for another one on Tuesday.”

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