Somerset Aims To Keep Reaching New Heights In 2016
The Panthers enjoy playing baseball together and that unity has helped lead to success.
The 2016 Somerset baseball team will leave a mark this year.
The sky is the limit for the Panthers, a veteran team full of seniors and plenty of talent. The guys have been playing together for years, they are strong in all the right places and they love playing together on this team. The squad is coming off its most successful season in program history, and there is an unmistakable hunger from them to make even more of this 2016 season.
The road to postseason success is never easy, and the Panthers face more than enough challenges just in their district. Yet it is a team that plays with confidence and that does a great job of utilizing each individual’s strengths to help the common goal of winning. They welcome challenges and they support one another the entire way.
“This team is all about chemistry and we have been playing together since we were like five years old,” senior Kenny Moreno-Costa said. “Everybody knows each other and what they can do and can’t do. When you see someone get the job done, the next guy then knows what he has to do. It is just chemistry. All of us practice every single day in the cages and on the field and we’re working really hard. We all really want this. We know what we’re good at or not good at. We know we can’t be perfect, but we are going to try to get there.”
About twelve guys in this group have been playing together since tenth grade and this is their third year together. They love each other and they want to go out with a bang. They know they are definitely capable of making a run. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but they want to improve from last year.
As usual, Coach Garcia has not made that road easy by scheduling many tough teams that they will play outside of a challenging district slate. The Panthers will again face defending-state champion Archbishop McCarthy at Marlins Park, as well as taking on tough squads such as Monsignor Pace, American Heritage and Mater Lakes, among others. The club will also compete in the IMG Academy Spring Break Tournament.
“The high school season is a journey and you have to keep getting better throughout the season,” Garcia said. “They struggled as tenth-graders and last year they improved and came to life. It was great to see their development and how they became more mature players with better approaches at the plate. They work very hard and they keep getting bigger and stronger.”
The driving force behind this squad is the chemistry and the faith in the coaching. With nine returning starters there are plenty of experienced veterans setting the tone in the dugout, and it is a team that does not panic when things get tough. They have been through these trials before, and they have seen things unfold exactly how their skipper told them they would.
Senior right-hander Brandon Valentin will be one of many hurlers in the mix this season.
“Onel is a great guy to have coaching us, and there are like eight seniors here who are like brothers to me,” senior three-year starter Juan F. Teixiera said. “We practice hard, we play hard and right now we are just getting ready for the season. We have everything between pitching and hitting and we have a few guys going to college.”
Half of the team’s 12 seniors have already committed to play college baseball. Three senior infielders have all committed, with Derek Cartaya headed to Alabama State, Luis Chavez going to Miami-Dade and Jack Khawly to Miami. A trio of players in outfielders Juan F. Teixiera and Kenny Moreno-Costa and pitcher Brandon Valentin are all going to ASA College.
“In high school baseball anybody can lose a game in the end, but it is also nice to see them go be good ball players at the next level,” Garcia said. “We want them to play together and grow from last year and be better ball players and keep being good teammates. This is a team game, and I can sense selfishness in someone right away. These guys hit behind runners, they put the ball in play and they know how to drive in runs when they have to. They know how to get on base when they have to and know how to run the bases when they have to.”
The lineup showcases a quality balance of speed and power, and the guys do an excellent job of feeding off of what each other provides. Cartaya and Moreno-Costa leadoff for RBI hitters like Khawly, Juan F. Teixiera, Chavez and seniors Franco Perdomo and Jose Hidalgo. At the back end are more guys like Tyler Hall and Mark Bejar, whom excel on getting on base and turning the lineup back over. Meanwhile incoming youngsters such as freshmen Max Baldaccini, Adrian Sanchez and Miguel Useche and new juniors Luis Perez, Jordan Quijano and Gianny Galvez are providing great depth with the bats.
“We go in spurts and score five runs in an inning and that is the ball game,” Chavez said. “If we’re hitting then we are all on four cylinders. At the top of the lineup we have guys like Derek Cartaya and Kenny Moreno-Costa who always get on for Jack Khawly in the three-hole, and he hits lots of bombs and gets us lots of RBIs. It just goes from there. We do have high expectations and we are all working hard in the fall.”
The pitchers may be working even harder, and this is due to the fact that there is no clear number one on the staff. Since last year the squad has mixed and matched and it has worked well for them. So Bejar, Valentin, Juan J. Teixiera, Angel Perez, Ryan Cabarcas, Hidalgo and Cartaya will all work as a group to get the job done on the mound.
“It turned out that doing it as a staff helped us win games last year,” Garcia admitted. “In high school baseball I think you need five or six guys, and those last few guys are going to have to be pretty good if you are going to win. You need to be able to play the whole seven innings. In today’s baseball world you have a set-up man and a closer, and most of these games are going to be won late in the game. So you can’t just depend on two guys anymore. The most important pitcher is the one who is pitching at that time.”
The Panthers lineup has a deep blend of speed and power.
Garcia admits that good pitching beats good hitting, but not all the time. No pitcher is unbeatable. But there will also be games in which they don’t hit and have to find ways to win those games. The Panthers must believe in the defense, have balance, run bases and not make a lot of dumb mistakes.
As Somerset chases after its first district championship, the road ahead will be a bit different. For the first time in nearly ten years the Panthers are not in a district with Chaminade-Madonna. Coach Garcia admits there is a good respectful rivalry between himself and Lions manager Mike Moss, and that they made sure to still schedule a game this season.
“We had some great games with them, especially the last few years. So that is why we are playing them again is because we want to keep that relationship,” Coach Moss said. “I really like and respect Coach Onel and this year they are going to be really good. So without them in the district it will be a little bit different. But believe me, this is the year that we don’t mind to get them out.”
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