HSBN Game of the Week: Spanish River At Boca Raton

Alex Demchak has led a strong pitching staff for the Sharks.

For Spanish River and Boca, the 2013 season has not gone according to the best laid plans. The two teams have struggled to gain consistency and find themselves four games behind district-leading Park Vista. That does not mean, however, that there is not time for the two squads to turn things around.

One team will get a chance to gain some momentum this weekend when Boca hosts Spanish River in an HSBN Palm Beach Game of the Week. The electricity should be in the air when the two crosstown rivals meet, with one making a big step towards the second place spot in 8A-10.

“It’s a huge rivalry game and it’s our last district game,” Boca Manager Rick Clagett said. “It’s a big game with huge seeding implications.”

To date, the only thing that has been determined in the district is that Park Vista will head into the playoffs as the top seed. After the Cobras, the second seed is wide open. John I. Leonard holds the two position with a 3-3 district record. Seminole Ridge is third at 3-4, and Spanish River and Boca are tied at 2-4.

That makes the Game of the Week all the more important for teams hoping to make a splash in the playoffs.

“It’s a big game, but it will be a bigger game 10 years from now when they come back for a reunion and they can talk about being the team that got us back to regionals,” Spanish River Manager William Harvey said. “I like that we get a bit of spotlight for the kids; we have good kids who deserve it and they’re looking forward to shine.”

The Bobcats return home this week from the Sarasota Classic Spring Break tournament. While in Sarasota, Boca went 3-1, beating Coral Glades, Palmetto and Cardinal Mooney. Their only loss of the tournament came against eventual champion Charlotte.

Before facing the Sharks on Saturday, a date with Park Vista looms on Wednesday evening. For the Bobcats, this week presents a chance to make a statement just a few weeks before playoff time.

“It’s huge for both teams to climb out of that last spot in the district,” Clagett said. “I told our players, if we go 2-0 we’re going to control going after that third seed. Then, instead of needing to win two games to get to the district championship, we only need one.”

Boca is being led so far this year offensively by Mike Spooner (.317) and Andrew Sperling (.333). In addition to batting average, Sperling leads the team in hits, RBIs, doubles, and home runs. Mike Smiciklas leads the team in runs with 10.

Junior Michael Smiciklas leads the Bobcats with 10 runs.

On the mound, Evan Lahr leads the pitching staff with 19 strikeouts. Chris Sheehan has an ERA of 3.00, and is tied for the team lead with Lahr and Alex Katz with two wins. Matt Allen, Franklin Russell and Mike Spooner have all also seen time on the mound for the Bobcats.

“We respect Boca. They beat us last year when it counted,” said Harvey, after the Bobcats ended their season with an 11-3 victory in the district playoffs last season. “We know they are going to come ready for us, and we’ve been telling our guys to get focused this week.”

Spanish River chose a different direction for their Spring Break. The Sharks took a trip to the Keys leading into Spring Break, defeating Coral Shores on Friday and Saturday. The two wins snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Sharks will be well-rested coming into the Game of the Week, with the Saturday tilt only the second game Spanish River will have played in a 14-day period. They face district rival John I. Leonard on Wednesday.

“It’s a do-or-die week for us,” Harvey concluded, as his team vies for the exact same thing as their rival Bobcats “I told the kids the road to the next round of the playoffs is if we’re a three seed, and then we’re only one game away from the district championship. We’ve been pitching pretty good and we have confidence coming into this. They are in position to be successful and they have to believe in themselves.”

Pitching ruled the first time the two teams met this season, as the Sharks won an exciting 1-0 match-up.

“We have a ton of respect for Coach Harvey and what they do as a team. We did not take advantage last time,” said Clagett, after Boca was shut out by the Sharks for the first time in five seasons. “Overall the team needs to be more aggressive. We were taking too many pitches and getting behind in counts. It let their guy throw his pitches.”

On Saturday, Harvey will send lefty Sam White to the mound after the junior has solidified himself in the team’s starting rotation with several strong starts of late.

“I want this to be the biggest game of the year for him,” Harvey confessed. “We have all the confidence in him, and we just have to do the little things to win.”

In a fierce rivalry in which the teams have split at 5-5 over the past six seasons, ultimately the small things will likely determine the victor after half of those results were decided by one run over that same period of play.

One factor which does come as an advantage for the Bobcats comes in serving as the hosts, as the home team has gone 8-2 over the past 10 of the series, including a “home” victory for Boca at Spanish River last year.

After years of bouncing around from field to field, the Bobcats finally secured a home field this season at nearby Boca Middle School.

“It’s great to have our own field, somewhere to call our own,” Clagett said, while professing how much hosting the Game of the Week means to his program as well as him personally. “My daughters were born two months premature, so there is a soft place in my heart for [the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation]. It is great with HSBN doing such a great job of covering baseball in South Florida, and we as a program are honored to be a part of it.”

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