Advantage to pitchers
2015 change tilted balance of power to teams with an ace
A 2015 scheduling change has enabled Orange City University to lean heavily on the left arm of ace pitcher Logan Allen through three years of Florida High School Athletic Association baseball postseason play.
The Titans (23-6), ranked No. 2 in the Sentinel Super Six, ride into the region finals for the third year in a row with pro prospect Allen on the mound when they play at No. 1 West Orange (26-3) at 7:30 tonight.
Allen has an 11-1 postseason record over three seasons and he is ready to go again. He had five days rest between a district semifinal and University’s region quarterfinal, then a full week before both his region semifinal win and tonight’s start.
The Warriors will match University’s top pitcher with their own stellar senior, Cole Beavin. He also starts for the third week in a row as the two teams vie for a spot in next week’s FHSAA state tournament in Fort Myers.
For baseball purists, the schedule change is among the unwelcome wrinkles in the revised high school postseason. After playing at least two games a week throughout the regular season, the road to the state tournament has come down to winning one game every seven days in May.
That means, unlike in years past, teams have the luxury of being able to roll out their ace pitcher in each of the three regional tournament rounds and
then again in a state semifinal.
“The whole format changes from what it is during the season,” Lake Brantley coach Eric Entrekin said. “Nobody likes it unless they have that one [pitcher] to put out there.”
Entrekin led the Patriots to a 2013 state championship, back when managing a pitching staff meant navigating regional semifinal and final games in the same week.
A member of an advisory committee that forwards feedback from coaches to the FHSAA, Entrekin suggests going to a best-of-three series through the first two rounds to ensure the best all-around teams advance, and not just those with the best starting pitcher.
That is a scenario West Orange was on the wrong end of when dropping two of three to Lakeland in the region finals in 2008. But few questions remained about which team was most deserving of advancing in that format in the eyes of Warriors coach Jesse Marlo.
“We have the worst playoff format in the whole country,” Marlo said. “The worst part about the whole thing is that it seems like the state semifinal game is usually [the best] game, and the championship game is a blowout because one team has a guy throwing 70 miles per hour the next day.”
Teams can now ride their No. 1 arm through the semifinal round, but if they win they must then take the field one day later and turn to pitchers who may have gotten very little, if any, work over the previous four games.
University experienced that scenario in 2015 when Allen, then a sophomore, went 5-0 in postseason starts but was unavailable in the state championship game after pitching four in a row. The Titans lost 10-1 to Miami Columbus.
The winner of tonight’s Class 9A and 8A semifinal games won’t return to the field until lining up for state semifinal games Friday, June 2 in Fort Myers. That’s a layoff of nine days.
The playoffs make a season’s worth of strategy hardly seem relevant. Teams are now focused on finding ways to keep the rest of the pitching staff fresh through live scrimmages and bullpen sessions in case they’re fortunate enough to be playing on the final day.
“We have benefited from this format probably as much as anyone,” University coach Frank Martello said. “However, when you’re playing three a week for an entire season, and players expect to play two, three or four days a week, all of a sudden you’re in a situation where you’re preparing for one game only, and I’ve had to come up with a whole new plan throughout the week.”
Timber Creek was an Allen casualty in 2015 in the state semis. But this year they’ve prospered under the new format with unbeaten Brett Neilan working every elimination game.
“All the teams left are benefiting from it because they all have an ace,” Timber Creek coach Tim Beaman said. “The question is do you have two? When you have a clear No. 1 it favors you because you always know you have a shot to keep it close and pull out a win.”
Another issue facing area coaches this late in the year is keeping a routine in place for student-athletes who have recently graduated and are no longer on campus until practice starts, such as the case at Bishop Moore.
“For the last five months you’ve been on this rotation of being at school, being there every day for all eight periods and here’s the rules you’ve put in place all year, and now the seniors are off doing other things,” said Hornets coach Tony Mehlich “You just hope they’re not losing focus.”
Balancing the postseason schedules for spring sports and all that takes place for high school seniors when it comes to things like graduation and prom has been no easy task for the FHSAA and its member schools.
FHSAA spokesperson Kyle Niblett said scheduling decisions are membership driven and based on suggestions from coaches, athletics directors and a board of directors before going to vote.
“We were hearing from our membership schools that there were a lot of concerns in terms of rain and not having enough makeup days available,” Niblett said of the playoff change. “When you have two games in one week and then one gets delayed, all of a sudden you’re looking at a Thursday or Friday and a quick turnaround. Then you’re talking about the arms of pitchers and missing a lot of class.
“Because our state is so large and the challenges that are being faced in different parts of the state are so different, it’s very hard to please everyone. But that’s why we have these committees and checks and balances in place, to try to please our membership.”