Trinity Christian Comes Up Just Short Against Brito

After the game was long done and most people had left the park, Franco Guardascione stood and took one last look out at the playing field.

The Trinity Christian senior faced a reality that so many of his fellow peers will also learn in the weeks to come, as he prepares to say goodbye to his high school baseball career.

This was a game that Guardascione had circled on his schedule, a rivalry match against Class 2A powerhouse Miami Brito.

It was a contest that did not disappoint, as Panthers closer Julio Gonzalez escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning to secure a 6-5 victory over the host Warriors.

But for Guardascione it was a match up that meant so much more, a game that not only brings the season near its close, but which also finally closes the door on a tough chapter in the history of this terrific rivalry.

“I don’t think anyone understood what it meant to me to come out and play them,” said Guardascione. “I don’t know if they have any other players left from then; I think I was the only one. It was awesome playing today, and I wanted this game. I just wish we came out on top.”

It is an interesting story that precludes Wednesday’s meeting at Santaluces Sports Complex in Lake Worth, and one that finally has an ending after a start that began way back in 2009.

But to understand what happened that day, it is important to know about the intense rivalry that exists between these two talented programs.

Brito (18-4) has won five state titles and played in the state tournament every season for a school-record 19 consecutive years up until last season. For years the Panthers always found themselves facing the Warriors in the Class 1A regional playoffs.

Trinity (15-6) had gone to the regional playoffs every year since Manager Miguel Cuello took over in 2004, and most years these two teams would end the season for one another along the way.

With two very talented squads that both play such aggressive and intense baseball, it did not take long for a rivalry to be born.

“The rivalry is two very good programs that play each other all the time and we’re friends. We’re friends,” Brito Manager Laz Fundora said. “To play a ballclub like this is what you look forward to.”

In 2009 the two teams met again in the Class 1A regional championship, which back then was a best-of-three series to earn a berth in the state tournament. Trinity won the first game behind its ace, and then the Warriors came storming back from an 8-0 hole to force extra innings in the second game.

“They know when they come to play us, and when we go play them, it’s like Yankees and Red Sox,” Cuello said. “We both want to win, even though we both know that day someone is gonna win and someone is gonna lose. It’s going to be close games, just hard baseball.”

With every run so important, what happened next is a baseball play that is essentially blameless in its actions.

Brito’s Daniel Bolanos was waved around third on a Panthers hit, and the big 6’6”, 200-pounder delivered a hard blow to Trinity 5’7″ freshman Phildrick Llewellyn on a play at the plate that left the young catcher knocked unconscious for several minutes.

A scrum erupted in the wake, as players from both sides tussled around home plate.

“It just hits you quick, just what to do,” Cuello said. “You don’t know how everybody will act, and you can’t control everybody.”

After a 40-minute delay in which the umpires consulted on how to proceed, five players from both squads were ejected from the game. Brito recovered to win in extra innings to force the decisive third and final game of the series.

But in that third game, those five star players from Brito were all suspended and the Panthers ended up having its entire team suspended for the contest. In a game that would send the winner to the state tournament, suddenly each team was forced to use backups to play for that victory.

Although Llewllyn was ruled eligible after it was clarified that he was unconscious during the entire incident, Trinity Christian was forced to use junior varsity players, which included the eighth-grader Guardascione.

“Some kids got thrown out, so I got to go in,” said Guardascione. “I was shaking the whole time, I was so nervous. I played first base because that was what we needed, and I just had to catch the ball and try to have fun.”

The Warriors went on to win and advance to the state tournament, but the aftermath proved costly.

The team opted to fight the FHSAA fines and suspensions, an action supported by the administration and Athletic Director Fred Erdman, as he had been at the game and agreed with both sides that it had never gotten as physical or out of control as was officially reported. But in the end the school was fined $12,500 dollars and given a three-year ban from playing in the state tournament.

With this season now at its close, that suspension will finally come to an end for the Warriors.

While it was fitting that these two programs played one another to mark the end of the suspension, the fact is that these two remained friendly rivals that continued to schedule games each season even right after that 2009 incident.

“It’s two good ball clubs and that’s the way we like to prepare to play tough teams in the playoffs by playing tough teams at the end of the season,” Fundora said, while admonishing that the two teams squashed any bad blood from that day by the time they took the field for that third game.

“At this level those things shouldn’t happen,” Fundora continued. “That was a spur of the moment thing and the kids had to put it behind them. We promote sportsmanship all the time, and we’ve got to play hard and have fun.”

The Warriors understand that play that day was clean and legal, just as Bolanos himself has even admitted that he should not have allowed himself to run down the catcher that day. For besides all the other punishments, these two teams enjoyed the epic battles they waged each year, when the winner felt more rewarded in heading to the state tournament having beaten such a worthy opponent.

The two teams just enjoy playing one another.

“We’ll play again; we’ll go to their park next year,” Cuello said. “When we both were in 1A, it was always us or them going to states. Both teams want it.”

That was exactly the case on Wednesday as well.

The Panthers jumped to an early 3-0 lead with three unearned runs in the top of the first inning, as Trinity came out rusty and committed multiple fielding errors to allow Julio Gonzalez, Edberg Dominguez and Savian Fernandez all to cross home plate.

But Guardascione helped the Warriors answer back when he singled to right field to send home Sjaghbar Martis in the bottom half of the first frame to cut the Panthers lead to 3-1.

“We committed two more errors in the fourth inning that really changed the game,” Cuello said. “I tip my hat to Brito, but I think when you commit five errors you shouldn’t win the game.”

The Panthers tallied the deciding runs with a three-run fourth inning.

Marcos Bolanos reached on an error and then advanced to second base on a wild pitch, where he was replaced by pinch-runner Alex Estevez. Estevez then completed the trip around the bases when Onelio Perdomo slapped an RBI single into center field.

Andy Herrera had drawn a walk to find his way to third base, and then he managed to come home and score when he was caught in a rundown and the defense was unable to make the play at the plate.

Perdomo closed the Panthers’ scoring by coming in on an RBI single from Gonzalez to record what would turn out to be the deciding run.

“To be honest, I don’t think we played good baseball. But we came out with the victory so I guess we’ve got to put it behind us,” Fundora said. “We’ve got to be winning games like this to prepare us for the playoffs, so as far as that goes it’s definitely positive.”

Over the years both of these programs have produced plenty of players who went on to play professional baseball, and on that day in 2009 there were in fact three future MLB prospects in Llewellyn, Aderic Kelly and Manny Machado.

This year the Warriors have another player with that sort of potential in shortstop Darren Seferina, and the standout senior did not disappoint on Wednesday.

Trailing by two runs coming to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, Seferina crushed a pitch for a solo home run that ignited a Warriors rally that fell just short.

Seferina also connected for an RBI single that scored Bruce Martin in the fourth, after Martin had connected for an RBI triple that scored both Angeliny Maduro and Kevin Scranton.

Seferina was 3-for-4 to lead all hitters.

When the team was hit with the three-year punishment, Coach Cuello wondered what would become of his program. But a fellow teacher at the school encouraged him to keep working and building what he had started.

“Make sure the kids are still coming for the purpose of getting better, of getting a degree somewhere or getting drafted here and there; that is the important thing,” Cuello said. “We’ve got kids coming from all over and all they want to do is play baseball and get into a good program, which we give them.”

Even though he knew he would never play for a state title again once the punishment took affect in 2011, Guardascione never thought of transferring to another school.

“Every senior class either goes on to play college baseball, or else they get drafted,” Guardascione said. “I’m going to college, and the other seniors here are going to college.”

It has been a long journey since that day in 2009, and finally Trinity Christian will return to a district and play for the postseason again.

“All I can tell you is, we’re back!” Cuello exclaimed. “That’s our motto for the whole year next season: we’re back. So get ready to play against us.”

Although Brito will again schedule this match up next year, Coach Fundora could not help but regret that they likely will not have the chance to renew their playoff history.

“They are moving up to 3A next year and I think we’re staying in 2A, so we’re going to miss them,” Fundora said. “Its two good friends, of course we battle on the field, but we’re definitely going to miss them. We will still play once a year though, because we need big games like that.”

On-field brawls are something that is rooted in the game of baseball, and children are influenced when they see such things. Just last week there was a benches-clearing brawl in Major League Baseball when the San Diego Padres’ Carlos Quentin charged the mound on Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zach Greinke. Quentin received an eight-game suspension, and Greinke suffered a broken collarbone that will sideline him for weeks.

“It’s a whole different level of the game; those are grown ups going at it. But it’s good for the kids to see that because then they realize what are the consequences for stuff like that,” Fundora said. “One is missing eight ball games and the other guy is gone for like eight weeks or whatever, and they are losing money at that level. So it’s a good experience for them to watch and learn from that.”

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