The 2024 high school baseball season starts Monday: 5 intriguing Volusia-Flagler teams

Presidents’ Day is also Opening Day for the Volusia-Flagler area.

The high school baseball regular season kicks off Monday and starts the march to Fort Myers and the state championships in late May.

Last year, one local program made it that far. Spruce Creek blazed through the playoffs before falling to Stoneman Douglas in the Class 7A semifinals.

Three other Volusia-Flagler squads also qualified for the state playoffs. Flagler Palm Coast and Seabreeze claimed district titles and advanced to the regional quarterfinals and regional semifinals, respectively. Pine Ridge earned an at-large bid and ended up in the semifinals, too.

Can those teams return to the postseason this spring? Who else could crash the fun?

Let’s take an introductory look.

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Deltona

The Wolves are the lone group on this list whose season ceased after districts last year. In their first year under coach Anthony Campanella, they finished 11-14.

They flashed their future, though.

Matthew Chase and Mason Draper played their way onto the Volusia-Flagler-St. Johns All-Area second team, and both are back as team pillars this season. Chase led Deltona in batting average (.391), extra-base hits (11) and runs batted in (16) while pitching to a 2.53 earned run average across 47 innings as a junior.

During his freshman campaign, Draper hurled a team-best 54 innings with a 1.43 ERA and 57 strikeouts.

Seniors Garnier Abreu (1.38 ERA in 30 innings) and Garrett Thompson (.358 average), who received all-area honorable mention nods, also return.

Flagler Palm Coast

The Bulldogs pulled a district championship upset, beating No. 1 seed Creekside as the third seed to get into the state playoffs. Overall, they rolled up four victories in their last five games. Their final record: 16-14.

Coach Kyle Marsh can now depend on his roster having regular season and playoff experience. Nine of the 18 Bulldogs are seniors.

That includes Cody Clymer, who provides a top-of-the-order and top-of-the-rotation presence. He grabbed an All-Area honorable mention spot with a team-leading .375 average and a 3.75 ERA in 56 innings.

Flagler Palm Coast will have to replace its other two All-Area players — Dalton Schell and Tristen Miller. Schell starred as one of the region’s top run producers (21 RBI), and Miller ranked second on the squad in batting average (.321) and put up a 3.50 ERA.

Pine Ridge

The Panthers possessed plenty of pitching last year and rode it to a 15-7 record and the Region 2-5A semifinals. Every player who took the mound — eight of them — recorded an ERA of 3.50 or better.

Can Pine Ridge repeat that this spring? It has some innings to fill. Five of those eight pitchers graduated, including Nicholas Morrissette (0.98 ERA) and Jacob Hoppe (2.74 ERA).

The three that return are seniors Logan Lewis, Tristan Parrish and Tyler Wright. Wright tossed the most innings with 14⅓ and featured a 1.95 ERA.

The Panthers’ top two hitters (minimum 30 at-bats) from a year ago, Alek Rentas and Derrick Walker, will help to anchor the lineup. Rentas hit .345 and Walker .302.

Seabreeze

After struggling to a 9-18 record in 2022, the Sandcrabs enjoyed a turnaround to 14-11 and a district crown last year. They captured six of their last eight games to do it.

Seabreeze will look a little different in its quest to repeat its success. Lost to graduation was its top hitter, Zachary Banks (.426 average), and top two pitchers, Evan Miller (1.51 ERA in 55⅔ frames) and Dylan Cavanaugh (1.92 ERA in 40 innings).

The good news: Coach Jeff Lemon still has some pieces.

RBI leaders Rustin Hurley (14) and Zane Barron (13) batted .321 and .315, respectively. Those averages trailed only Banks. Sam Donlick also nabbed a plus-.300 average (.311) as a junior.

As for the pitching staff, junior Micah Sanders and sophomore Tommy Hayes showed promise. They followed Miller and Cavanaugh in innings. Sanders had a 3.50 ERA in 14 frames. As just a freshman, Hayes pitched 12⅔.

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Spruce Creek

Much was written about the Hawks’ slow start last year. Probably too much.

In the end, it didn’t matter as they shook off the 1-6 start, vaulting to 20-11 and the state semifinals. They had pitching. They had hitting. They fielded well. And all of that should continue this season.

Leading hitter Tyler Boyesen and ace Shane Lavin are back. Boyesen hit .326 last year. After missing the first month of the year due to an injury, Lavin made up for lost time with a 0.89 ERA in 31⅓ innings.

Other returners: senior Lucas Tutunjian (2.10 ERA in 13⅓ innings), senior Julian Braga (.280 average, 13 RBI), junior Devon Crown (.258 average), junior Lucas Badalato (13 RBI) and more.

Spruce Creek welcomed some impact transfers, too. Duke commit Lamar Edwards tallied a .350 batting average, 20 RBI and four triples at DeLand last year. Also new from the Bulldogs, Stetson commit Andrew Ezell was good on the mound and at the dish. He pitched 20⅓ innings with a 3.10 ERA and batted .260 with 14 RBI.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school baseball: 5 Volusia-Flagler teams to watch in 2024