Mater Academy Falls To Coral Springs In Heavily Scouted Tourney Opener
Mater Academy came into the Selective Recruiting Invitational tournament this week knowing they would face some of Broward’s best teams. Their first test came Monday afternoon against Coral Springs. The Lions were up against a Colts team that, like itself, have had scouts camped out at nearly every game. Mater played a competitive game, but came up short in a 4-1 loss.
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The day had more of a showcase feel than a tournament as the two teams took batting practice on the field before the game for the over 50 scouts in attendance. The scouts had their eyes focused on two players, Lewis Brinson of Coral Springs, and Albertico Almora of Mater Academy. The two players are both expected to be possible first round draft picks in the upcoming Major League draft, but neither figured prominently in this one.
Instead it was Coral Springs’ pitchers Brett Schneider and Dalton Wolchik that stole the show. Schneider went the first four innings, allowing only three hits and one run. In the fifth, Schneider turned the ball over to Wolchik, the Colts closer, who proceeded to throw three innings of one-hit ball and secure the win for Coral Springs.
This ball ricocheted off Mater’s star player, but he was not hurt, and he was safe!
“Their pitchers did a good job of keeping us off balance,” said Gorriz. “When we have bases loaded like we did in fifth, we’ve got to get those runners in. In these tournaments, you always respect your opponent, even when you don’t know them that well, and today we came out here trying to do our thing, and we just couldn’t. You’ve got to give them (Coral Springs) credit.”
What Schneider and Wolchik were to the Colts on the mound, first baseman Allan Sharkey was to the team at the plate. Sharkey, who will be playing his college baseball at the very place the Colts played Monday (Nova Southeastern), gave the Sharks coaching staff watching the game something to get excited about.
In the third inning, Sharkey started a two-out rally with a single, and scored on an Aaron Maller double to left. Then, with the score tied 1-1 in the fifth, a Sharkey single drove in Brinson, who had reached on a walk and stole second to get into scoring position. The Colts tacked on two more in the sixthon the strength of consecutive singles by Austin Nelson, Dylan Ebel, and Jordan Gleicher.
“I just went out there looking for my pitch to hit, and today I got them,” said Sharkey, in describing his two singles on the day.
Schneider acknowledged that it was tough to pitch to a team that the Colts knew little about, and he explained the game plan coming in on the mound.
“I just wanted to try and keep my team in the game,” said Schneider. “I knew if I could keep their runs to a minimum, our offense would score enough runs to win the game.”
For the Lions in a tournament where four games are played in five days, Gorriz chose to limit his pitchers and go with a committee approach to the first game. Mike Mediavilla started for Mater Academy, and threw three strong innings, giving up only one earned run. Andrew Cabezas also threw well in relief, giving up one run in two innings, while striking out four.
With the loss, Mater is eliminated from reaching the championship game, but Gorriz does not anticipate a motivation problem in the remaining games of the tournament.
“These guys will move forward and play with a sense of pride,” Gorriz said, “if I have to get them going, then they shouldn’t be playing the game.”
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