By Jeff Odom
The Steinbrenner baseball team has enjoyed its fair share of success during the last three years — in the regular season.
While the Warriors (9-0) have put together records of 18-6, 19-5 and 17-7 since the school opened in 2009, they have hit a wall when it comes to the district tournament. Last season, they blew two major leads and lost to eventual Class 7A-District 9 champion Gaither in extra innings as the No. 1 seed.
Fourth-year coach John Crumbley, who won three state titles in 22 years at the helm of Jesuit, said things have just not gone as planned when it comes to big games, but hopes experience and talent changes that this season.
“You got to hope they want to be the first group to get us to the postseason,” Crumbley said. “We’ve had some heartbreaking situations, but the thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve took something and improved every year because of the guys who went before. We have a saying that potential is interesting, but performance is everything.”
Getting past the district semifinals will rest largely on a new cast of characters after Steinbrenner lost much of its top talent from a year ago to graduation.
Gone is No. 1 starting pitcher Chris Williams (7-0, 1.66 ERA*), second baseman Christian Diaz, shortstop Stone Ramsey, left fielder Sammy May and third baseman Gerald Bautista, who plays in the Cleveland Indians organization.
Junior right-handed pitcher and first baseman Cole Gordon (6-1, 0.95 ERA*) has moved to the top of the rotation in place of Williams. The No. 2 spot is still up for grabs between right-handed junior and first-year varsity player Gideon Dunn and lefty senior Nick Sucarichi.
“The main thing we have to do is replace Chris Williams’ innings on the mound and the workhorse he was for us for three years,” Crumbley said. “We think our pitching with coach (Steve) Morgan working with them that we’ll be able to find out where we’ll get those quality innings from and be competitive in each of our games.”
Gordon, a 2012 Perfect Game USA All-American honorable mention, said he isn’t rattled by the expectations he has to live up to.
“It’s an honor to do it on this team, because there’s a lot of pitchers that have stepped up here before and there’s a lot of juniors and seniors coming up this year,” said Gordon (.273, four homers, 21 RBI*). “It’s not about carrying the load. It’s about sharing it with everyone else, and I think we’ll be able to handle it all.”
Steinbrenner is looking to its seniors to continue making strides and improve from the squad that hit just .288 last season.
Senior first baseman and Florida Gulf Coast University signee Chase Turner (.354, nine RBI*) said there cannot be an individual mentality if the team wants to go far.
“We have some big bats this year and hopefully we can get it done, and hopefully it will be exciting,” Turner said.
One of the advantages the Warriors have this season, according to Crumbley, is the pool of talent brought up from the programs developmental squad.
First-year players like third baseman Mijon Cummings, sophomore catcher/infielder Chase Debonis and outfielder Alex Hanson have made an early impact.
Hanson, who gave up football to make baseball his top priority, is excited to play at the top level.
“It was really hard (leaving football), but I loved baseball,” Hanson said. “It’s a big relief that now I can play with all my friends, and that hopefully we can go far this year. I know that I’ve trained hard, and I should be prepared to do what I can do for the team.”
The journey to a district title won’t be easy for Steinbrenner with rivals Wiregrass Ranch and Gaither the favorites to challenge for the championship. Gordon isn’t sold on that, though.
“I don’t think they’re necessarily the favorites for the district; I think we should be the favorite,” Gordon said. “Getting past them, I think we’re just going to have to play our baseball and not conform to them. If we want to get to the next level or states or regionals, we’re going to have to beat teams like that and step up.”
*Stats from last season
