When a team hits .536 combined, it can become difficult to pick out just one superstar. Spring Hill posted that batting average in last week’s Dixie Baseball Junior Boys (age 13) All-Stars State Tournament at the M.E.R.E. Complex in Marianna. The Hernando County crew went 4-0, outscoring its opponents by a combined 58-7. For eight players and head coach Joe Abbadessa, it was a repeat from winning the state crown at the “O”Zone (age 11-12) level last year.
Abbadessa pointed to five of his players as the guiding force in this squad earning its second consecutive state crown and a trip to the World Series starting Aug. 1 in Aiken. S.C.: Dominiq Collura, Richie Fox, Luis Ortiz, Jake Rice and Jaden Rivera. “I think those guys are pretty much the vocal (leaders) and the leaders in what they do on the field,” Abbadessa said. “They set the tone for the rest of the team, pitching, offensively and defensively. Where they go, the rest of the team follows. They’ll set the pace for us. They go out and play the way they just played in the state tournament, I think we’ll be a tough team to beat.”
Collura, a shortstop/outfielder/pitcher who hits second in the batting order, tied for the team high with a .727 batting average, going 8-of-11 at the plate with four walks. He also notched two triples, a home run, scored nine times and drove in seven. He made one pitching appearance, earning a win while tossing three innings, yielding no runs on four hits and a walk against three strikeouts. “I saw the ball well and the pitching wasn’t really that fast for me not to be able to catch up,” Collura said. “I think we have a lot of confidence. We just can’t be cocky.”
Ortiz, an outfielder/third baseman/catcher/pitcher, provided the most pop with a team-high two homers and 13 runs batted in, to go with a .583 average, two triples and seven runs scored. He threw one scoreless inning on the mound, permitting a hit and two walks while striking out two. “I did all right, I guess,” said Ortiz, typically the third hitter in the order. “I just felt comfortable when I was playing.”
A catcher/outfielder, the cleanup hitter Rice matched Collura with a .727 average, smacking three doubles. He scored eight times and plated six runs. “I felt like I did good hitting-wise,” Rice said. “I know I did my part getting on base, helping my team out,” he added. “I stayed back on the ball. We were expecting much faster pitching than what we saw there. But once we knew it wasn’t going to be that fast, we all worked in the cage and we all started to sit back, and that helped a lot, ” explained Rice.
Fox, a third baseman/outfielder/pitcher, is the only member of these five who was not with the “O”Zone squad a year ago. He comes from the Dunnellon Little League, but knew several of the Spring Hill players through travel ball. He hit .625 with five hits in eight at-bats, including one double. He drove in six runs and scored six times. Additionally, he pitched in two games throwing five innings, posting a 1-0 mark and 3.60 ERA with six strikeouts. Unlike most of his teammates, he has no previous World Series experience to fall back on. He admitted to being a bit nervous about the looming festivities. “Just block everyone out and just focus,” said Fox of how he’s handling the pressure, adding the team will need to, “Just play hard and make routine plays…”
For the rest, that 2014 World Series run seems to have left a bitter taste. It was a loss to the Alabama state champ in the final game that cost Spring Hill the title. “To come back and beat Alabama, that’s our main goal. Winning the World Series is another thing, but beating Alabama is first,” Rivera said. Last year I think we should have had that game, but we just couldn’t finish the game. This year we just want to get them,” Ortiz stated. “We all need to play together, with confidence.”
“I think that we’re just going to go in every single game and try to win every inning,” Rice said. “It’s (last summer) going to help us a lot. We know the feeling of being there. We know how we have to play. We just know that if we do our thing right we’ll end up in the championship game again and hopefully come out first place. “It’s going to be a disappointment if we go there and we don’t get to the championship game. If we get to the championship game, I’ll be happy.”
“We’ve been working for this for a while, since last year,” Collura said. “We have next year, but I want to win it this year.”
“Last year when we lost in the finals to Alabama, 7-4, we had eight guys returning from that team,”Abbadessa said. “All of them, when we sat in that huddle last year, all said the same thing, that the goal was to get back here this year and win it, and try to avenge that loss to Alabama. I think that’s motivated them for the last 11 1/2 months and that’s all they have in their minds.”
There is one catch. The team representing Alabama in this upcoming World Series hails from Enterprise. Last year’s “O”Zone champs were from Muscle Shoals. So any payback won’t come against the same team.
Regardless, Coach Abbadessa already believes Spring Hill has achieved great things. “I couldn’t be more pleased and happy and proud of what these guys accomplished… In my mind, we can go up there and lose two games and I’m still going to be ecstatic about what these guys did,” Abbadessa said.
