Jupiter Falls 4-0 To Lake Brantley In 8A State Semifinal

Jupiter senior Kyle Vesnesky was 2-for-4 in the loss.

State Semifinal Photo Gallery

Making their first appearance in the state tournament in school history, Jupiter Warriors Manager Andy Mook knew that he had the right group of players capable of winning it all.

Even as the final out of Friday’s Class 8A state semifinal sent home the harsh reality that that was not going to happen, the second-year skipper could feel nothing but pride for his team that had played true to their Warriors name.

While Lake Brantley celebrated its victory over Jupiter (23-5) following its 4-0 shutout at jetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Mook assured his players not to hang their heads or get down on themselves.

This had been the group to finally break through and earn the school a shot at a state title.

It was how the team had done it that meant the most to Mook and the rest of the Warriors extended family.

“I’ve always preached that it takes that team chemistry, and that’s this group,” Mook said. “They’ve accomplished something that’s never been done in 50 years at Jupiter High School, and they should not hang their heads.”

Although the squad suffered its first shutout defeat this season, they actually recorded more hits than the Patriots. The normally prolific offense hit the ball hard, but more often than not it was hit directly at the defense.

“One through nine all year round we’ve had big hits, and today it didn’t happen,” said senior Johnny McCarthy. “We hit the ball hard many times and we out-hit the other team. But they didn’t make the mistakes that we did. It sucks that it’s over with, but Jupiter baseball is on the rise and everybody needs to know it.”

The Patriots (26-5) scored all of their runs during a disastrous second inning in which Jupiter committed several errors that led to its undoing.

Logan Blum reached on an error and then scored two batters later on an RBI single from Tate Blackman that staked Lake Brantley with all the run support it would need. When Mick Tinny also reached on an error that extended the inning, the wheels began to fall off as the next three batters singled to plate three more unearned runs.

Jupiter senior reliever Hunter Halsey pitched five shutout innings.

“That’s the game of baseball,” said Mook. “It’s one of those things that breaks happen. The first inning they threatened, and then we threatened. It seemed we had a couple of balls that got through and a couple of kicks that went their way. That’s how it is; we just couldn’t get a break. But they kept battling the whole time.”

Senior left-handed starter Scott Danek took the tough-luck loss for his first defeat of the season to put his final season record at 7-1. Danek pitched well despite the results, pounding the strike zone on 30 of his 42 pitches to stay within the game plan and pitch to his defense.

After Danek faced 13 batters through the first two innings, Jupiter elected to make a change and went to the bullpen for senior righty Hunter Halsey.

“Scott Danek has done a fantastic job for us and it wasn’t like he was getting shelled. It wasn’t anything like that,” Mook explained. “It was a situation where he probably could have gone out and thrown some more, but we needed to make a change. They were adjusting to certain things, and I knew I had Hunter Halsey lined up and ready to go. I knew Hunter was going to be fantastic as well, and he was. He shut the door and gave us opportunities to come back in the game.”

Halsey was nearly perfect through the final five innings, facing just one batter over the minimum. After allowing a leadoff walk to Dalton Cuff in the top of the fourth, he went on to shut down the final 12 Patriots batters to give Jupiter all the opportunity it needed to stage a comeback that just never materialized.

“My approach was just to keep my team in it as long as I could,” said Halsey. “I knew we’d fight back, but balls were not falling and things weren’t going our way. There’s not much else you can do. I just tried to keep us in it as long as I could. I was making the pitches I needed to make.”

The Warriors’ offense put runners on base in almost every inning, but struggled to come up with the big hits that have been characteristic of their lineup. Jupiter stranded eight runners in all.

The players were staying within their normal game-plan, yet it seemed that every time one of the Warriors did get a hold of a pitch it would travel directly at a defender for a routine putout.

Second baseman Glen Casaceli hauls in a line-drive.

“It happened to almost everybody on the team. Everybody was hitting the ball hard and there’s just nothing you can do about that,” said senior Pat Walther. “We were having a lot of talks in the dugout about what we were doing wrong, and changing our approach. We were definitely trying to make adjustments during the game. It just didn’t work.”

Nearly every Jupiter starter reached base, led by senior third baseman Kyle Vesnesky and junior catcher Logan Heiser, who were both 2-for-4.

Mook credited Heiser as one of the key cogs of the team that flourished all year by playing together as one unit and not focusing on individual goals. As the program looks to the future they will be relying on Heiser and other returning players to maintain the standard that has been set this season.

“We’re going to have to go back and keep that same approach and the same ideal that it’s all of us together,” Mook said. “Getting here was great, but it was business. It wasn’t that we were just happy to be here. We had a goal, and that goal was to win it all. It sucks that the seniors are leaving. But the juniors and other players on the team, and even our players in our junior varsity program, they now see what it takes to get this far and how to keep doing it. They got a taste of it so now what the seniors can do is simply say they set the model. It was playing as a team, team chemistry and all the little things.”

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