Five Star baseball tournament notebook: First-year varsity players step up for Pine Ridge

PORT ORANGE — Eric Dearborn flips the pages of his scorebook.

The young players, the new Pine Ridge Panthers, immediately stand out. Before this season, his first baseman, second baseman and third baseman did not have a single varsity at-bat between them. His catcher had four.

None of them are really “new,” though.

“Everybody on the field has come up through our JV program,” Dearborn, Pine Ridge’s coach, said. “We have no transfers. Even last year, we were in the same boat. The year before that, we had one ... And our varsity practices with our JV, (our JV) practices with our varsity. So they get a lot of the interaction and mix the whole way.”

Is that the secret?

Dearborn watched some of these young guys thrive at the junior varsity level last year. He identified their talent. But he didn’t foresee them panning out this well this quickly.

There they were Saturday, charging the third-seeded Panthers to a 7-4 win over No. 6 Deltona in the Five Star Conference quarterfinals at Spruce Creek High School.

Right in the middle of it all.

The first baseman in his first varsity campaign, junior Humbert Casillas, contributed a game-best four runs batted in. Sophomore third baseman Sam Figueroa had another hit, scored another run and added his own RBI. He bats .400 this season. That average and his 14 RBI pace the squad.

“At the beginning of the season, I was struggling a little bit, but I changed my approach,” Figueroa said. “Just keep the leg down, no high leg kick, and just go through the ball. Hard line drives and have fun.”

Junior Loren Cheatham started on the mound. He batted through five innings of three-run baseball.

“Just throwing strikes, doing my job when I need to,” Cheatham said.

It didn’t click right away. Pine Ridge dropped its first four games, including two against the team it will face in the Five Star semifinals Tuesday, DeLand.

But after the 0-4 start, the Panthers ripped off four wins in a row. They’ve won 11 of their last 15, bringing their 2024 total to 11-8. They’re 4-0 versus district foes.

“I think we all learned to play as a team, play together and started playing better,” junior Kenny Capria said.

Capria represents another Pine Ridge player to break out this spring.

The Panthers graduated nine from last year’s roster, which waltzed to the district finals and ended in the region semifinals. They lost other expected contributors to injuries.

Junior Luke Wilder projected as one of their outfielders. He tore his labrum and needed surgery. Senior Logan Lewis became more and more important as last season progressed. He was a starting infielder, a bullpen piece and a hitter in the middle of the order. He hurt his knee in the season opener two months ago and has fought with it since.

So Capria, Figueroa and crew stepped up.

Capria owns a .362 batting average and a 2.08 earned run average across 33⅔ innings. Figueroa has filled in admirably at the hot corner. Casillas reached a double-digit RBI total (11). Junior catcher Tommy Soltysiak bats .260. Cheatham’s ERA is 2.36 in a team-high 35⅔ innings.

And while the infield, minus senior shortstop Derrick Walker (.345 average), is gaining its first varsity experience, the outfield already has it. Saturday’s outfield of Mathias Oliver, Bobby Clupper and Alek Rentas are also seniors.

That scorebook, though. It lists mostly sophomores and juniors.

“It's nice for down the road,” Dearborn said.

And, apparently, right now.

“At 0-4, it's easy to fold your tent and go home,” Dearborn said. “They never did. And then to fight back, we're 11-4 since. Mentally, that's hard to do, and all of them did it. I can't be more proud of the work they put in to bring that. They wear the hat with pride and they represent, and for the most part, they do it right.”

Pine Ridge 7, Deltona 4

With the victory Saturday, Pine Ridge completed a season sweep of Deltona, capturing all three meetings.

“Any time you can beat a quality team — and Deltona is a quality team, no matter what the (6-14) record is — they're three miles, four miles up the road,” Dearborn said. “They're that rivalry. Any time you can beat that team once, it feels good. When you can sweep them on the season, there's a little extra bounce in your step.”

The Panthers outhit the Wolves 8-7. Each team made three errors.

In the first inning, Pine Ridge exploded for three runs, only to be answered by three from Deltona in the second.

The Panthers jumped back ahead with three more runs in the third. Deltona scored its fourth and final run in the fifth inning. Pine Ridge collected one more in the sixth to push the score to 7-4.

In addition to the four RBI by Casillas and one by Figueroa, Oliver plated two runs. Junior Chris Kable followed Cheatham on the mound with two scoreless innings.

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Senior Brock Musson was the lone Wolf to accumulate multiple hits. He had two. Junior Jayden Lochiatto notched two RBI.

Senior Jesse Page started for Deltona. After two innings, he gave way to 3⅔ from senior Miguel Cortes. Cortes calmed the contest down. He allowed one unearned run and struck out three batters without a walk.

Spruce Creek 8, University 1

The Hawks (16-5) commenced their Five Star Conference title defense Saturday on their home field.

After falling behind University 1-0 in the top of the first inning, they took the lead with two runs in the second inning and never trailed again. They tacked on six runs in the fifth to seal it.

Six Spruce Creek hitters knocked in runs, including senior Shane Lavin with two. Juniors Josh Rape and Peyson Garcia each scored twice.

Lavin gave up one run in three innings, and Garcia held the Titans (7-10) without a run across three frames of his own. Junior Anthony Barton also tossed a scoreless inning.

University’s Victor Rios led off the game by reaching on an error. With two outs in the first, he sprinted home on another error, one of five by the Hawks.

Otherwise, the Titans mustered two hits — one by Alonso Delgado and another by Jonathan Bradley.

Spruce Creek will host Flagler Palm Coast in the semifinals Tuesday.

Flagler Palm Coast 4, Seabreeze 0

Two Bulldog pitchers combined on a gem against No. 5 Seabreeze Saturday.

Junior Ayden Normandin started and went six scoreless innings while allowing only three hits. Junior Adam Kleinfelder slammed the door out of the bullpen in the seventh. They controlled the Sandcrabs during a win for fourth-seeded Flagler Palm Coast (10-10).

Sophomore Carson Flis drove in two of the four runs.

Seabreeze (9-13) pitched well enough with junior Parker Bauknecht and sophomore Mason Sanders to give itself a chance. The Sandcrabs surrendered just four hits. But they hindered themselves with five errors.

Junior Rustin Hurley tallied two hits for Seabreeze.

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DeLand 7, New Smyrna Beach 2

The No. 2 Bulldogs and No. 7 Barracudas opened the Five Star Conference Tournament a day earlier than everyone else, with the DeLand (11-7) picking up a victory Friday on their home field.

Landon McClain doubled home two runs in the top of the first to put the Barracudas (8-10) ahead. He finished with two of their four hits.

But after that, DeLand starter Luke Hoffmann settled down on the mound. He went four innings and did not give up a hit after the first.

In the bottom of the inning, the Bulldogs tied it on an RBI single by Ethan Jones and an error two batters later.

They grabbed their first lead 3-2 in the fourth.

Hoffmann and Dylan Lawrence each tallied two hits. Ethan Zagers drove in two runs.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: High school baseball: Five Star Conference quarterfinals notebook