Trautman Gem Moves Pompano Into 5A-14 Title Game
Pompano celebrates moving on to the district championship game.
One team came into Wednesday’s 5A-14 semifinal with a record of 16-8. The other team came in at 12-13. Anyone looking at those numbers would think the 16-8 team would be heavily favored to advance. That was not the case, however, at Broward College on this night.
When the season began, North Broward Prep was one of the most talked about and feared teams in Broward County. The Eagles had collected a deep pool of top arms on the mound, and many believed they were one of the teams to watch in the state-title chase. They were the 12-13 team.
On the other side of the field stood Pompano Beach, a team that had gotten stronger as the season went on, and that was anchored by playing as fundamentally sound as possible. The Golden Tornadoes, at 16-8, were also the team that came away with the victory and advanced to the district title game.
“They have some very talented, high-profile players on their team,” said Pompano manager Joe Giummule. “But in our opinion, we felt we had a better overall team. I told these guys, ‘fellas, we’re 16-8. don’t take anything away from yourselves. we’re 16-8 for a reason, and if you play like you’re 16-8, good things will happen’.”
Instead of taking Giummule’s advice, his Golden Tornadoes played like they were undefeated, and the team to beat. They played aggressively, and received a crafty performance from Peyton Trautman on the mound. The senior, who is now 7-0 on the year with an ERA under 1.50, delivered a Greg Maddux-like performance, not overpowering any of the Eagles hitters, but hitting his spots with his fastball and letting his defense work.
It was a testament to what pitching coaches everywhere preach: throw strikes and locate your pitches and good things will happen.
“My pitching coach told me before the game, ‘keep the ball down, and you’ll win this game’,” Trautman said. “I stuck with that approach throughout the game. I just kept going right at them, attack, attack, attack, and don’t ever fall behind in the count. So I just went right at them, and it worked out.”
Peyton Trautman threw a complete game for the Golden Tornadoes.
North Broward Prep was held in the game thanks to a gutsy performance from their ace, Evan McKendry. The senior had to deal with two bases-loaded situations and a second-and-third situation in the first three innings, but managed to give up only one run, each time digging down to get out of the jams.
“He’s an exceptional young man,” Eagles manager Brian Campbell said of McKendry. “He gives you everything he has every time he goes out there, and he is destined for much bigger and better things. You hate to lose a game like this, but if you’re going to lose, you want it to be to one of the good guys, and Joe is one of those guys. His teams are always prepared, and they played a great game and deserved to win today.”
This is not Giummule’s first rodeo when it comes to navigating a district tournament. The Golden Tornadoes manager has previously led Coral Glades and advanced to regionals with South Broward. The common theme with all of his teams is stressing fundamentals and playing together with emotion.
Ironically, the fundamentals were lacking a bit in this victory. Pompano left seven runners on base in the first three innings, and failed several times to get bunts down in key situations.
“Baseball doesn’t usually forgive like it did today,” said Giummule. “Usually when you leave that many runners on, and don’t execute the little things, it comes back to bite you. But today, Peyton was great on the mound, as he has been for us all year, and we fought through the adversity to get the win.”
Pompano now moves on to face Somerset Academy in the district championship game on Thursday night.
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