Mater Academy Shakes Things Up With Meilan

On a breezy afternoon at Mater Academy Charter School in Hialeah Gardens, Tony Meilan is all smiles as he runs his baseball team through a brisk practice. The players all take their reps in the batting cages before heading over to take infield, outfield and hit the weight room. The one big difference is that at Mater Academy, they don’t have their own baseball field. For the time being, the team works on a half-length artificial turf football field that it shares with the rest of the student population since its home field at Westland Park in Hialeah is being used by a Courier league.

While the team takes infield between the goal line and the 30 yard line, the band is practicing near the end zone, track athletes jog around the perimeter, and dozens of other students are still hanging out on campus.

With baseballs whizzing around and seemingly unaware students standing nearby it seems an accident waiting to happen if a ball slips by a glove.

However, the team goes about their business as if they are all by themselves. Like watching poetry in motion, the field session is run with incredible precision. Every throw seemed to be crisp and thrown on a rope, throws rarely sailed past open gloves, and as the orchestrator Meilan directed the show hitting ground balls with a fungo bat, looked as if he’d been coaching the team for years instead of a few months.

“I don’t want to say it too early, but I think one through nine, they’re all pretty good,” said Meilan, who returns to coaching after leading the Belen Jesuit program for 10 years.

The Lions are coming off a season in which they finished 25-4, 14-0 in District 6A-16 and lost to national powerhouse Archbishop McCarthy, who was won the last four Class 6A state titles. In addition, Mater Academy lost an impressive group of talented seniors including two players who were drafted this summer in Willie Abreu (14th round by the Cincinnati Reds) and J.C. Escarra (32nd round by the New York Mets).

“I’ve always told them those three guys that left, Escarra, Abreu, and [Kevin] Abraham (FAU) they are three guys that left some big shoes to fill,” says Meilan. He replaces the HSBN District 6A-16 Manager of the Year in Eddie Gorriz.

Even with those players gone, the Lions have a new crop of players that may end up just as heralded as the last group. 6’4, 225 pound senior pitcher/first baseman Mike Mediavilla (.474, 27 R, 26 RBI; 7-0, 54.1 IP, 1.16 ERA 76 K) is committed to the University of Miami and may be the next Lions player selected in the MLB draft. Junior pitcher Andrew Cabezas (7-0, 39.2 IP, 1.41 ERA, 48 K) is also verbally committed to Miami and with Mediavilla will form a two-headed monster on the mound this season for Mater Academy.

“I think this year’s pitching staff is going to be a lot better than last year because the young guys are more experienced and throw more strikes, and me and Cabezas come back with more experience” Mediavilla said. “He’s throwing upper 80s, me low 90s, and I think it’ll come out to be a really good season with me and him as the one-two punch.”

Meilan is well aware of the talent at his disposal and he knows its his job is prepare them to be the last team standing at the end of the season. While the new coaches and players have gotten familiar with each other, he admits the relationship was rocky at first. Meilan. who played two seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, pays attention to the little things. That meant challenging his players to be sharp both on and off the field.

“First of all, they didn’t know who I was too well and the same for me,” he said. “Getting to know each other, getting to know my style, getting to know the way I feel should be played.”

He has put the onus on his team to be fundamentally sound and the players have noticed the difference.

“Last year we worked out more, he’s more of a mechanics coach, we’ve been hitting baseballs from the start,” said senior outfielder/first baseman Angel Ortiz (.452 B.A., 27 RBI, 20 R).

Other players have echoed that sentiment.

“This year is a little more baseball structured, we’re focused more on hitting and working baseball-wise more than conditioning,” said junior outfielder Danny Reyes, who is verbally committed to Florida.

The Lions will be a team that wins games behind great pitching, solid defense, and timely hitting. They have five lefties in the bullpen and pitching is their strength, so they are hoping they are going to hit and field the ball too.

Despite losing the “Big 3” from last season, the Lions will bring back a formidable lineup this season. Led by Ortiz, Mediavilla, and Reyes (.379 B.A., 21 R, 20 RBI), Mater may not put up some of the gaudy numbers from last season but they will certainly pack a punch on offense in 2014.

“We’re going to have variety,” Meilan admitted. “We have speed, we have power and not too many guys can hit righty, lefty all the way down the lineup.”

With the aforementioned players returning, Mater Academy is one of the favorites to compete for a state title out of Miami-Dade county and team embraces those expectations.

“We’re excited because we feel like we are the team to beat,” said Meilan. “If you ask all around who is the best team in the district, it’s us.”

However, the team knows it can’t take any game for granted in a baseball haven like Miami.

“We’re gonna go out there and try to smoke everybody and try to win,” said Meilan. “If we win 2-0, 1-0 thats fine with me.”

The lions will compete in a revamped district that includes Belen Jesuit, Doral Academy, Homestead, Miami Jackson, Miami, Northwestern, and TERRA.

Two of the more intriguing games on the schedule will be against district rival Belen, where Meilan led the Wolverines to two State Final Four appearances before being let go in 2009. Meilan’s name is on display with the 2007 State Final Four team in front of Belen’s baseball field.

Despite the long history,  he says he will treat Belen like any other opponent.

“They gave me a great opportunity to be there for 10 years and we did well and won, but like I’d said its a regular game and we’ll go out there and we’ll play hard,” he said.

With so many talented players in his arsenal, the sky is the limit for how good Meilan and the Lions can be. However, with a bullseye on their backs Mater will have to trust each other if they hope to capture the Class 6A crown.

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