FORT MYERS, Fla. – Monday was moving day at the 18u PG Florida State Championships at Terry Park, with eight teams moving onto the playoffs and the other 20 moving into consolation games, if they desired to play in one. Orlando-based FTB Platinum was fortunate to move into the elite eight neighborhood but unlike all but one other playoff qualifier, it had to haul an extra load of furniture before the move was complete.
FTB Platinum (3-0-0) didn’t start pool-play in this four-day event until playing a single-game on Sunday – most of the other 28 teams started play on Saturday – which forced the Platinums to complete pool-play with two games on Monday They hopped right to it, beating the Florida Spikes (Fort Lauderdale), 7-0, before clinching the pool championship with a decisive 9-3 victory over previously unbeaten Inspiration Academy 18u (Bradenton).
Thanks to an 8-3 win over Florida Baseball Academy (Jacksonville) to kick things off Sunday, FTB Platinum outscored its three pool-play foes by a combined 24-6 and earned the No. 5-seed in bracket-play, which began late Monday afternoon. Semifinal games and the championship game are scheduled for Tuesday morning at Terry Park.
“These guys have been playing great; this is a strong unit,” FTB Platinum head coach Percio Rodriguez said after the playoff berth-clinching victory over Inspiration Academy 18u. “These guys have known each other for a while and they’re just playing good baseball right now.”
The reward for that victory meant playing a third game in roughly eight hours, but Rodriguez was undaunted: “Right now I’m pleased because our pitch-count is low, which is where we’re supposed to be at,” he said. “Our rotation is set up well and out guys are healthy. I’ve got everybody feeling good and now we’ll just see where the ball takes us. You know how this game is.”
All three of FTB Platinum’s pool-play wins seemed to require a big inning. It trailed Florida Baseball Academy, 2-0, before a six-run third inning followed by a two-run sixth led to the 8-3 win; the Platinum scored single runs in each of first, second, fourth and fifth innings against the Spikes, but a three-run third helped push them over the top in that 7-0 victory.
The game against Inspiration was decided early when FTB sent 12 men to the plate and scored eight runs in the first, with the first eight hitters in Platinum’s batting order swinging from the left side. The frame started with a leadoff triple from 2017 middle-infielder Austin Davis (Orlando) who eventually came around to score, and the scoring didn’t stop until 2018 corner-infielder Christian Millan-Olmeda (Tampa) smacked a bases-loaded, three-run double. Millan-Olmeda doubled again later in the game and Davis added a single to lead the nine-hit attack.
Davis was also 2-for-3 with a run scored in Monday’s first game – he scored twice in the second game – and he didn’t play Sunday. Platinum got contributions at the plate in the three wins from 2016 Chase Montanez (Orlando), 2016 Alejandro Guerrero (Dominican Republic), 2016 Chris Tidwell (Lakeland, a Stetson signee), Cameron Robinson and 2017 Chase Ritter (St. Cloud). It also got a huge boost from 2017 left-hander Michael Perez (Orlando), who threw five innings of four-hit, shutout ball with 11 strikeouts and one walk in the win over the Florida Spikes.
“This is one of the best teams I’ve ever played with,” said Millan-Olmeda, who counts FTB as the sixth organization he has played for in a Perfect Game career that started in 2012. “The chemistry is so good with all the players and the coach and everybody; we’re basically a family. Everything we do, we do together. Everybody has one goal, and basically we’re all together as one instead of playing as individuals. I think that’s what makes us stand out from other teams.”
The FTB Platinum roster is a little thin at this event as many of its top 2016s that have already signed with colleges are off either visiting their schools or going through orientation. Others are involved in individual workouts and are splitting their time between commitments. Quite a few of the players on the roster attend The Conrad Academy in Orlando, where Rodriguez is the head coach.
His FTB team stands apart from many of the others under the powerhouse travel ball organization’s umbrella in that not only do the prospects play their high school baseball on the same team, they also try to train together the year around. Rodriguez calls it “a good group of brothers.”
“With the program that I have here, most of them are from my Christian school and they know how I work,” he said. “They’re versatile players, they can play more than one position, so it makes it a lot easier when they’re able to do that. There have been some guys that have really stepped up for us.”
FTB Platinum has already been heard from this spring/summer season. It finished 5-1-0 at the 18u PG WWBA East Memorial Day Classic in Fort Myers after losing to the Elite Squad 17u South Pride in the semifinals, and went 5-2-0 at the 18u PG WWBA National Championship in Cartersville, Ga., after starting pool-play with five straight wins.
“We did pretty good at the WWBA in Georgia … so with that mindset we came in here and said we’re going to limit our mistakes and cash in on (the opponents’) mistakes,” Rodriguez said. “That was the goal when we came in here.”
A player like Millan-Olmeda, who is uncommitted, loves playing on the big, national stages but there’s also something to be said about a good, old-fashioned backyard brawl among neighbors, which is really what the 18u PG Florida State Championship boils down to.”
“We always set our goals high. We come here to win every game and build off that momentum,” Millan-Olmeda said. “We try to do our best at every tournament, but this one (with all Florida teams) is special. You see the other competition and you see friends – I have friends playing with other teams – and it’s nice to see them out here playing against us.”
The Platinum faced-off against No. 4-seeded FACTR Baseball 18u from Indian Rocks Beach in the quarterfinals, the third game of the day on yet another hot and humid early summer day in Southwest Florida. At least it looked like the usual late afternoon/early evening thunderstorm wasn’t go to be a problem. It was going to take a lot more than a little rain to slow down FTB Platinum, anyway, not on this moving day.
“It is a challenge but these guys were ready for it,” Rodriguez said. “Since (Sunday) we started talking about it, knowing we’ve got to win three (Monday) and two (Tuesday); we came in with the mindset knowing that. The heat gets to you, but once again we’re already set up and we’re ready for this.”