Cardinal Gibbons baseball team ends long title drought behind pitching gem

All they had to do was hand him the ball and he took it from there.

On a team that has more or less been offensively challenged most of the year, great pitching is crucial. And with a state championship on the line, Cardinal Gibbons pitcher Brenden Trujillo delivered in the biggest way possible.

Trujillo was one step short of brilliant on Wednesday night as he delivered a complete game two-hitter while striking out seven to lead the Chiefs to a 4-1 victory over Santa Rosa Beach South Walton in the Class 4A state championship game at Hammond Stadium.

The win ended a 37-year drought since the program won its first and only state title in 1987 and more or less exorcised a few demons from five years ago when the Chiefs had the winning run 90 feet away in the last inning of the state title game, only to lose to Melbourne Central Catholic in extra innings.

“When you have a guy that throws a two-hitter against a pretty good hitting team, that’s where it starts right there,” Gibbons coach Jason Hamilton said. “Brenden was just magnificent out there, he had control of his three pitches tonight, we had a good plan going in against them and he executed that plan.”

Trujillo walked just three South Walton batters and basically stayed out of any serious trouble all night. Unfortunately, thanks to a throwing error at third base to start off the last of the seventh (Gibbons’ only error all night), Trujillo wound up allowing a two-out run on a groundout that ruined his shutout.

When he walked Braxton Varnes with two outs, he was approaching 100 pitches (105 is the one-game maximum) and Hamilton had closer Jack Campbell ready to shut the door. But Trujillo bared down and struck out Derlan Fowler on three pitches to end the game and waited for his teammates to mob him on the mound and form the dog pile.

“Going into tonight, I thought a game like this you’ve got to be able to execute pitches and locate them to the best of my ability and it worked out,” said Trujillo, who faced just 25 batters. “When I learned that coach was handing me the ball, I said ‘let’s go.’ I wanted that ball in my hand.”

Asked about how he dealt with the pressure, Trujillo just shrugged his shoulders.

“It was in the back of my mind but once I stepped on the mound, I kind of settled into a nice place,” said Trujillo, just a junior who has yet to see much interest from colleges. “Getting off to a good start was huge. Then we got the four quick runs and I really settled down and got into a nice groove after that.”

The Chiefs struck for those four runs in the bottom of the second when they plated the only runs they would need. They came thanks in part to a pair of wild pitches from South Walton starter Charlie Willcox. After Bryce Faison led off the inning drawing a walk and Travis Hogan fouled out, George Stringos and Victor Norori, the No. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup, came through with back-to-back singles loading the bases with one out.

Willcox then threw a wild pitch scoring Faison from third and advancing the runners. After Willcox walked leadoff hitter Randy Petron, he threw another one in the dirt that went to the backstop scoring Stringos and advancing the runners again. Catcher Eddie Marshall then hit a soft grounder to third for the second out of the inning but Norori hustled home from third to make it 3-0. Third baseman Jason Vazquez then stepped up and drilled Willcox’s first pitch into left field for an RBI single to complete the four-run tally.

The only time South Walton had a chance to get back in the game came in the top of the fourth. When Trujillo hit Jackson Perkins to start the inning, Frank Wells singled to left right behind him and the Seahawks (21-11) had first and second with no outs.

Then came a move by the South Walton coaching staff that backfired when Hunter Barber, who had just entered the game relieving Willcox and hitting in the No. 4 hole, laid down a bunt. Marshall fielded it cleanly and fired to first for the out but Perkins got too aggressive and rounded third trying to score. He had no shot as the throw home got him in a rundown, eventually being tagged out for the second out. Hudson Mandel flied out to center on the next pitch to end the inning and what turned out to be South Walton’s only threat of the night.

“What a great moment for everybody and to bring the state championship back to the school and coach Ham his first one is unbelievable,” said Vazquez, one of the senior leaders who had two hits and an RBI on the night. “We have some dogs on the mound so once we got those four runs early, we were pretty confident that we could ride that. Brenden was our head dog out there tonight for sure and we just rode him all the way home.”

Off in the distance was long-time Gibbons assistant coach Dave Montiel. It was he that might have really been able to enjoy the moment because Montiel was the only person in the stadium on this night who was directly connected to that 1987 team that beat Auburndale 6-1 at Auburndale High School to win the title.

Mantiel, who has coached outfielders and baserunners on Hamilton’s staff for the last 20 years, was not only a starting sophomore center fielder on that team, but actually recorded the last three outs of the game.

“Our coach (George Petik) kept yelling at me to act like I’d been there before and I yelled back ‘but coach, we HAVEN’T been there before,” said Montiel with a laugh. “Just one of those surreal moments in your life that back then I probably really didn’t appreciate it the way I should have. I had no idea what a state championship was but looking back on it a few years later, I really came to appreciate how great that team was and what we had accomplished. Now this year, to experience this tonight, it’s the ultimate of coming full circle. A group of kids that believed in the process.”

Hamilton then got a little reflective.

“I’m just excited for the entire Cardinal Gibbons baseball community,” Hamilton said. “It’s a community that extends all over the United States, I’ve had about 120 calls and text messages from alumni over the last few days so tonight was not just for the players, the coaches and the school, but for the alumni and the entire Gibbons baseball community as well. I couldn’t be happier and more proud.”