Regional Playoffs Or Bust For Spanish River

Boomer Saraga returns at third base for the Sharks.

It’s been 15 years since Spanish River made it to the regional playoffs, a fact that isn’t lost on the players. They are going into this season with a sense of enthusiasm and a wave of confidence.

They feel as if this is going to be a special year, a time to break out of doldrums that the program has endured. For the first time in some of these players’ careers at River, they’re excited about what’s going to happen over the next few months.

“We have a great opportunity this year. We have a lot of seniors, so it’s basically going to be about doing the small things,” said senior third baseman Boomer Saraga. “We have a couple of guys who can hit pretty well and an all-around team effort, unlike the past years when we came up short and there was a little bit of individual play. If we do the little things, I think we’ll have a much better year than we’ve had in the past.”

Saraga said it’s no secret why he and his teammates are gung-ho about this spring. There’s a chemistry and camaraderie in place that he hasn’t seen in a while.

“I think for the first time since my freshman year we have a bunch of kids who enjoy playing with each other, and there’s a lot of seniors, so we’ve grown through the system together,” Saraga said. “We’re a much tighter team than we’ve been, and I think our record is going to show that this year. For the first time, we’ve got a bunch of leading upperclassmen, and I think us coming together is going to put more runs on the board and get us to that 20-win season we’ve been seeking for about six, seven or eight years now.”

River finished 10-13 last season and 13-11 in 2012, with an identity of always being that team you had to watch out for because of its unpredictability and scrappiness. The Sharks played in 10 games last season that were decided by two or fewer runs. They won four of those, including an 11-inning, four-hour battle with rival Olympic Heights.

Sharks Manager Bill Harvey, who was the coach when River last was in regionals, said he believes his team is excited about the season ahead because they see an opportunity before them. But the knowledge of how to win comes from actually winning, experience that the players are lacking.

“We have a lot of guys who have experience this year, but the experience is just playing experience,” Harvey said. “We need some experience in winning. Last year we had a lot of close games, and we didn’t win most of them, so this year, we need to win those games. We have a lot of guys who have 50, 60, 70 game’s experience, which you don’t have a lot in high school but we do because a lot of them started as ninth- and 10th-graders.”

Harvey said the team has outlined goals for the upcoming season, one of them being reaching the 20-win mark. Another is landing the top seed for the district tournament, and a third goal is reaching regionals.

“I think they see a little urgency, and maybe that’s where the enthusiasm comes from,” Harvey said. “‘Hey, we need to make this happen now. Not next year. Not two years down the road. It needs to happen this year.’ They do come to the ballpark with a little bit more of a pep in their step I guess, but they need to come ready to go. It needs to happen now.”

Saraga believes the Sharks can slip in under the radar because teams still may be discounting their ability. That’s just fine with him.

“I think playing as the underdog really is going to give us the extra lift this year,” Saraga said. “We’ve always been in the mix, but we’ve always been around .500, and for the first time, I don’t think teams are prepared for what we have to offer them this year. I think we’re really going to surprise a bunch of teams that in the past have beat up on us, and I really think playing as the underdog is going to give us the extra leg when it comes down to the wire.”

Senior left-handed pitcher Sam White also feels good going into this year.

Sam White will be among the top pitchers this year.

“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” said White. “I think last year we were very trendy. We would go out and win five games and then we’d lose six in a row, and those games would be decided off of one or two errors. Everyone got a lot smarter, and the baseball IQ really rose over the summer playing and getting their reps in. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people when we go out there. It’s a lot of people’s senior year. We want to make it something special.”

Several pieces of the puzzle of success are falling into place at River this season. The team, which is loaded with juniors and seniors, is confident in its offense, has solid pitching and a good core of returning players on defense.

Fenway Parks, whom Harvey said will be one of the leaders this year, is back at first base. Anthony Acino, who hit over .400 last year, will play at second with Devin Bard at short. Saraga is at third.

Billy Marion is in left field, John O’Connor in center and Ryan Berger at right. Sophomore catcher Austin Hurwitz is still developing, Harvey said, but gained good experience last year as a freshman.

Matthew “Chui” Slootsky and White look to be at the top of the pitching rotation with three outfielders also vying for a starting spot, Harvey said. White was last year’s number two behind ace Alex Demchak, who has graduated.

“The pitching staff is deeper than it’s ever been with myself, Chui, Ryan Berger,” White said. “We’re going to have a couple of kids on the mound who haven’t quite been pitching their whole high school careers, but we’re going to mix it up this year. Our infield is stacked. We have literally three-plus kids at every position, so there’s going to be a lot of mixes. Every game, it’s going to be a different lineup depending on the pitching matchups, depending on who we’re facing.”

Slootsky said he’s looking forward to the opportunity to help the younger pitchers mature.

“I hope I get to show them what it’s like to play. I hope I get to have a sense of leadership, have them know who to look up to, know what to do when they’re not doing anything and help them get through it,” Slootsky said. “Our offense is the best in my four years here, so we don’t need to throw any one-, two-run games anymore. We can throw three-, four-run games and have good solid pitching and know your team is going to put up runs to give you confidence on the mound. You don’t have to try to pitch perfect. You can just throw.”

Slootsky said the team has the arms to stay in games it couldn’t last year after the starter came out. He notes the dropoff from the top of the staff through the relievers isn’t huge, giving the team a legitimate chance to win every time it takes the field.

“We would be in games, district games, and we wouldn’t be able to close them out because our starter got pulled out and our relief pitcher just wasn’t up to par with the level of competition he needed to be,” Slootsky said.

The solid pitching staff will complement the hitting this season, which looks to be improved over last year with more power throughout the lineup.

Fenway Parks brings a big bat back this season.

“I’m hoping that we get a couple of home runs out of Boomer and Spencer Diaz, and a couple of more homers out of Fenway, but we need to hit more doubles,” Harvey said. “Last year, we hit a lot of singles, but we need some more doubles. We need to drive the ball into the gap a bit more. If we can do that, then we can run some. We don’t have a lot of speed, but if guys are making contact and we’re confident the ball is going to get hit hard somewhere, we can hit-and-run and put some steals in motion and get ourselves in scoring position where those singles will mean something. Last year, we’d get three singles in an inning and not score a run. We didn’t score like we should have last year, so we’re hoping to get that turned around this year.”

One other area players are seeing an improvement in is the team chemistry and camaraderie.

“Since my freshman and sophomore year, and a little bit my junior year, too, there were cliques,” Slootsky said. “The seniors, they’d be together and they wouldn’t really converse with the other kids and the same with my sophomore year, those kids were together, and my junior year last year we were a little more together. But this year, there’s not one clique on the team. They’re one group. We eat together, we hang out after practice together, we go each other’s houses. I’ve played with most of the kids on this team since I was five or six years old. Spencer Diaz, he’s been my best friend since I was three. Boomer Saraga, Ryan Berger, they’ve been my best friends since sixth grade. It’s unreal. I literally grew up with these kids and now they’re on my high school team.”

White said he hopes the togetherness will help in the quest to get out of the district.

“It’s our senior year,” White said. “It’s funny that Boomer, Chui, myself, Ryan Berger, Devin Bard and Fenway, we all grew up and came from the same schools playing 12-year-old rec baseball and six years later we’re still together on the same team. So we’re trying to make this year something special. I really think we have a strong chance of winning the district this year, us and Park Vista. I want that matchup. We need some revenge from last year. We put a number on Boca and then got spanked by Park Vista, but we’re going to change that this year.”

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