FORT MYERS, Fla. – Former big-league pitcher Mark Guthrie and Venice (Fla.) Senior High School head coach (and former minor-leaguer) Craig Faulkner founded the Florida Burn Baseball travel ball organization in relative obscurity in 2011. In the five years since, the program has grown into one of the most successful and well-respected in the country.
The original 2012 Florida Burn Orange underclass team featured current University of Florida stars Dalton Guthrie and Michael Rivera and won numerous Perfect Game tournament championships over a three-year period. The success of that team led to the creation of younger teams, and those squads excelled at the national level in their respective age-groups.
This week’s 72-team 15u PG BCS Finals features three Sarasota-based Florida Burn teams, with the most prominent being the Florida Burn Platinum 2019. It’s a squad built in the Burn Baseball tradition with a huge assist from a former adversary. This 15u Florida Burn Platinum 2019 squad was formed by coming last year’s top Florida Burn and SWFL IronPigs 14u teams.
Jeff Callan has been the pitching coach at Venice Senior for more than 20 years and was on the ground floor when Faulkner and Guthrie founded the Florida Burn organization five years ago. Wayne Harrell was the head coach of various Port Charlotte-based IronPigs teams for the last six years, and Callan and Harrell decided to do something crazy.
“Wayne and I have battled each other from 13-and-under on up for the last three or four years,” Callan said Saturday morning from just outside the third base dugout at Terry Park Stadium. “We just sort of felt like, ‘What if we could combine these two teams?’ Wayne was looking for something for his kids to come into, and we thought, oh my word, if we could combine them both we’d really have something. So this is a pretty special team.”
When it comes to the top players on the Burn Platinum 2019’s roster, it’s a pretty even split between those who spent their earlier years playing with the Burn and those who were with the IronPigs. As an example, at the 2016 16u PG WWBA East Memorial Day Classic in late May, the Burn Platinum 2019 had the following eight players named to the all-tournament team:
Third baseman Steve Parker Farris (2018, Indian Rocks Beach); middle-infielder Kevin Dubrule (2019, Venice); left-hander Nolan Hudi (2019, Safety Harbor); first baseman/left-hander Tanner Kelley (2019, Dover); catcher Aaron Martins (2019, Port Charlotte); left-hander Carson Palmquist (2019, Fort Myers); middle-infielder Josh Rivera (2019, Avon Park); and middle-infielder Cooper Weiss (2019, Fort Myers).
Parker Farris (ranked by PG as a High Follow), Dubrule (HF), Hudi (HF), Kelley and Rivera all cut their teeth with the Burn; Martins (HF, Florida Gulf Coast U. commit), Palmquist (HF) and Weiss (top-1,000) spent the lazy, crazy days of their youth with Harrell and the IronPigs. Additionally, 2019 right-hander/first baseman Kyle Machado (HF, Punta Gorda, FGCU commit) and right-hander Kevin Conway (HF, Port Charlotte) were with the Pigs.
“With a lot of these guys, they’ve played against each other since they were 8 or 9 years old,” Callan said. “Now they’ve jelled together to where you can’t really tell that these are the kids that came from the Iron Pigs and these are the kids that came from the Burn.”
The Burn Platinum 2019 opened play at the 15u PG BCS Finals on Friday with a 3-1 win over DeMarini NSTA from Norcross, Ga. The Burn trailed 1-0 after 5 ½ innings but pushed across three runs in the bottom of the sixth with Rivera delivering a big two-run triple. Machado worked 5 2/3 innings and allowed one earned run on three hits, and striking out seven without walking anyone.
“We’ve been looking forward to this (tournament),” Machado said before adding that he hopes the Burn 2019 Platinum can win the championship and he can be named to the all-tournament team. “This is a real fun group to be around and it’s been a really good transition (with the Iron Pigs and the Burn coming together).”
Saturday morning at Terry Park, the Burn Platinum 2019’s bats came alive in in their 8-1 victory over the Elite Squad 15u North out of Pembroke Pines, Fla. Dubrule had a pair of singles and drove in a run, Palmquist and Matthew Hardie each doubled and drove in runs and Tyler McKenna singled and had an RBI. Hudi, Bryce Einstein and Parker Farris combined on a seven inning four-hitter, striking out 10 and walking four.
“Our pitching is phenomenal,” Harrell said before Callan added: “I would say, age group-wise, we probably have as strong as pitching as any team or organization.”
It really has been a “team” effort to date and Callan thinks the fact that these young guys have played against each for so long has been a benefit. With each subsequent battle, the Burn and the IronPigs gained more respect for each other and when they were brought together there was already a kind of mutual admiration society. Callan smiles now when he thinks back on the rivalry.
“With the social media, Wayne and I would actually call each other and sort of laugh about it when we played each other,” Callan said. “And then there (were rumors) that Wayne and I didn’t like each other, and that was never the case. It was just a good rivalry and the kids knew each other … and Wayne and I knew coaching-wise what our strengths were. Wayne calls a very good game and works with the pitchers, and everything works out well.”
The Platinum 2019 played at the 16u PG WWBA East Memorial Day Classic but missed the playoffs after going 2-1 in pool play, and played in several other non-PG tournaments this spring and early summer. They usually play up at the 16u level and have been looking forward to their participation at this 15u event, along with the upcoming 15u PG WWBA National Championship and the 15u PG World Series, both of which will be played at PG Park South-LakePoint in Cartersville, Ga., later this month.
“It’s been a grind but it’s been a lot of fun; we’ve gotten a lot of good team wins,” Dubrule said of the season to date. “This whole team grinds and we expect to win; we have a winning attitude.”
Callan and Harrell hope to keep this group together throughout the players’ high school careers and win a whole lot more PG tournament championships for Florida Burn Baseball. The history of the organization is a relatively short one but it’s already a grand one, and that’s not lost on this group of 15-year-olds.
“I know we’ve had a winning history and we want to uphold that,” Dubrule said. “It really means a lot to me to put on this Burn jersey.”