CARTERSVILLE,
Ga. – FTB Chandler (1-0) rode a seven-run inning and stellar pitching to
a 9-1 victory over the OTC Baseball 16u (0-2) in a Saturday afternoon pool
T matchup at the 2012 WWBA 16u National Championship. Due to the
tournament’s mercy rule of eight runs after five innings, the game
ended.
Florida
Travel Baseball’s bats woke up in the third inning as they crossed
the plate a whooping seven times.
“We
came out a little sluggish,” said FTB Chandler head coach Jered
Goodwin after the team’s win. “I kind of had to yell a little bit
at them. They did a good job of running the bases and playing
defense. We were fortunate enough to have a big inning.”
Nick
Longhi (2013, Venice High, Fla.), Colby Bortles (2013, Oviedo H.S.,
Fla.), Jeremy Vasquez (2014, Martin County H.S., Fla.), and Tyrone
Perry (2015, Avon Park H.S., Fla.) each contributed RBIs in that
frame.
Longhi
is a Louisiana State University verbal commitment while Bortles has given
his verbal pledge to University of Mississippi. Both attended last
month’s National Showcase at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in
Minneapolis, Minn., and rank amongst Perfect Game’s top 300
prospects for the high school class of 2013.
Vasquez
also made an appearance at the Metrodome as he participated in the
Junior National Showcase. He ranks as Perfect Game’s 42nd-ranked
player in its high school class of 2014 prospect rankings. That list
will be updated in the near future. Perfect Game’s National
Director of Scouting, David Rawnsley, commented after the Junior
National that Vasquez should be one of the top hitters in the 2014
class as he “had some of the loosest wrists of any player” at
that event.
FTB
Chadler’s roster also includes Nicholas Gordon (2014, Olympia H.S.,
Fla.), Perfect Game’s fourth-ranked 2014 high school player, as
well as Kyle Marsh (2014, Spruce Creek H.S., Fla.), who checks in as
the PG’s 12th-ranked prospect in his class.
Marsh,
who gave an early verbal commitment to University of Central Florida
in Aug. 2011, walked twice, stole two bases and scored a run on
Saturday. He played second base in this game, but manned the
shortstop position and served as a right-handed pitcher on Spruce
Creek’s 8A state championship-winning team this past spring.
“When
I toured the school, I enjoyed the surroundings, the academics and
the people I talked to there,” said Marsh of UCF.
The
6-foot-2, 177-pound Marsh said that after playing a few
tournaments in 2011 with FTB he was sold on the organization.
“I
got to play two tournaments with them last fall,” Marsh
said, “and just loved it and couldn’t leave so I stayed.”
Goodwin,
who handles FTB’s player recruiting and college recruiting in
addition to coaching a team or two, said he has seen Marsh numerous
times in the past year.
“He
was in our district in high school,” said Goodwin, who also serves
as head baseball coach at Hagerty H.S. in Oviedo, Fla. “He’s a guy
that, if he wants to, can do whatever he wants. He can swing it, and
he’s as dominant as I’ve seen on the mound as far as having some
velocity, locating and having a plus-plus breaking ball.
“With
him, I try to bang it into his head that it’s just about staying
focused and staying aggressive. If he can do that, the sky’s the
limit for him.”