These three Broward County powerhouses in baseball will play in premier tournament
The 16-team field for the premier high school baseball tournament in the nation has been announced, and it includes three Broward schools.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Calvary Christian and American Heritage have earned their way into the field for the ninth-annual National High School Invitational, set for April 1-4 at Cary, North Carolina. It’s a single-elimination tournament requiring the champion to win four games in four days.
“[The NHSI] is the best tournament I’ve ever been to,” said new Calvary coach Gil Morales, who coached in this event in 2016 and 2017. “The talent pool is ridiculously good.”
Over the past two years, 10 players who competed in the NHSI were selected among the top 35 players in the MLB Draft.
Of the past eight NHSI champions, seven of them have come from California and one from Florida (Orlando’s First Academy).
“It’s all about pitching depth,” American Heritage coach Bruce Aven said. “California schools play more regular-season games than us in Florida, and that allows them to develop more pitchers.”
Here’s a quick look at the three Broward schools that will head to North Carolina in a couple of months:
▪ American Heritage: Aven has a loaded roster this year with an incredible total of 17 players who have already committed to college baseball scholarships.
The Patriots have two of the top 70 senior prospects in the nation in speedy center fielder/leadoff batter Enrique Bradfield (No. 37) and defensive-minded shortstop Jordan Carrion (70), who could bat second.
American Heritage, which will compete in Class 4A this season, is seeking its third state title and its first since 2012, when the team finished with a No. 1 national ranking as well.
Besides Bradfield and Carrion, the other Patriots seniors who have signed are first baseman Gavin Casas (Vanderbilt); third baseman Gio Ferraro (Miami); right-hander Cole Stasio (Baylor); right-hander Gavin Smith (Florida State); right fielder Matt Ruiz (South Florida); catcher (and the coach’s son) Kolbe Aven (Furman); and second baseman Hunter D’Amato (Fairleigh Dickinson).
▪ Calvary Christian: The Eagles were jolted in June when Alan Kunkel left to become hitting coach for USF’s baseball program. He had led Calvary to two Class 4A state titles in four years.
The new coach, Morales, 43, was a big success in the Jacksonville area, winning four state titles – 2005, 2007 and 2008 at Eagle’s View and 2015 at Trinity Christian.
“I took this job at Calvary because of the challenge of competing in the south,” Morales said.
The Eagles are led by 6-6, 210-pound right-hander Andrew Painter, a Florida recruit who can reach 94 mph. But junior right-hander Irving Carter, a Miami recruit, won’t play this season due to family obligations.
The Eagles are hoping that the pitching void will be filled by talented sophomores Eric Blair and Jonathan Xureb and senior Kyle Tako, who is a Florida Gulf Coast recruit.
Morales’ top two hitters are the sons of former major-league players: senior shortstop Dante Girardi, whose father (Joe) was a catcher and is now the Phillies manager; and junior center fielder Ty Hollandsworth, whose father (Todd) was an outfielder and is now a Marlins broadcaster. Girardi is an FIU recruit.
▪ Aquinas: Joey Wardlow is the new coach. He replaces Troy Cameron, who went 151-37 in seven years at Aquinas, reaching he state semifinals twice and winning a Class 8A state title in 2018. Cameron is now an assistant softball coach at Florida State, which won the national title in 2018.
Wardlow, who was a head coach for two years at Tampa Wharton (1998-1999), was an Aquinas assistant under Cameron the past four seasons.
A 53-year-old Key West native, Wardlow inherits senior right-handers Nate Thomas, a Miami recruit who is 14-2 over the past two seasons, and Blake Purnell, committed to Florida. Senior shortstop Keanu Jacobs-Guishard signed with South Florida.
In addition, there are two Aquinas players who have signed with NCAA Division II programs: senior outfielder/left-hander Mikel Cuvet (Embry-Riddle) and senior first baseman Otis McDuffie (reigning national champ Tampa). McDuffie is the son of former Dolphins wide receiver O.J. McDuffie.