2017 Perfect Game High School Preview Index
No. 3 Archbishop McCarthy Mavericks (Southwest Ranches, Fla.)
State Association/League: Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) Class 6A; District 15.
Head Coach: Rich Bielski (9th year as head coach).
2016 Results: 29-2 overall, 4-0 6A District 15 champion; FHSAA Class 6A state champion.
Key Losses: SS Kobe Lopez (Florida International); OF Alex Carballo (Broward CC); RHP Austin Genao (Broward CC); So. C Jake Holland (Calvary Christian Academy; U. of Miami).
Top Returning Players: Sr. 1B Alex Toral (Miami); Sr. 3B/RHP Joe Perez (Miami); Sr. OF Adan Fernandez (Fla. International); Sr. 1B Andrew Hernandez (Fla. International); Sr. RHP Daniel Federman (Miami); Sr. OF AJ Hendricks; Sr. INF Ubaldo Lopez (Dartmouth); Sr. RHP Johnny Leone (Nova Southeastern); Sr. RHP Jose Martinez (St. Joseph’s); Jr. SS Luis Tuero (Miami); So. LHP/1B Yordani Carmona (Miami); So. OF Michael Machin (Miami); Fr. RHP Albert Hernandez (Miami).
Notable Matchups: March 6 vs. Westminster Christian at FIU; March 17 at American Heritage; March 29-April 1 vs. USA Baseball National High School Invitational at Cary, N.C.; April 7 vs. Flanagan; April 18 vs. Gulliver Prep (Miami).
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ARCHBISHOP McCARTHY HIGH SCHOOL HEAD COACH RICH BIELSKI offered greetings to a caller from Eastern Iowa last week, and sounded about as upbeat as everyone should expect a man in his enviable position to be.
“It’s another beautiful day in South Florida,” Bielski replied when asked how he was doing on that late January morning. “Sometimes it just overwhelms me that I’m living in this tropical paradise. All my family and friends up in Baltimore, they don’t even like talking to me. I tell them, ‘Come on down!’”
Such is the life for a 49-year-old former 10th-round MLB draft pick who played one season (1990) in the minor leagues and is now the guy in charge of one the most elite high school baseball programs in the country.
In the eight seasons Bielski has been the Mavericks’ head coach heading into the 2017 campaign, he’s compiled a 186-31 overall record (41-2 in the state playoffs). He has won six FHSAA state championships in the last seven years, including the last two years in a row: 2010 (Class 4A), 2011 (4A), 2012 (6A), 2013 (6A), 2015 (5A) and 2016 (6A).
With the 2017 regular season set to begin on Feb. 20, Bielski and his Mavericks find themselves in very familiar territory in terms of returning talent and the accompanying high expectations. Competing in Class 6A again this season, they are the favorite to win a third straight state title and are No. 3 in the Perfect Game High School Preseason National Top 50 Rankings.
The Mavericks’ coaching staff will oversee a 2017 roster stocked with high-level prospects, including 11 that have signed with/committed to NCAA Division I schools (see above). The senior class (2017) is led by Alejandro “Alex” Toral, a Perfect Game All-American ranked No. 7 nationally; Joe Perez, No. 74; Jose Martinez, No. 345; Daniel Federman, No. 399, and Ubaldo Lopez, No. 435; there are four other top-500s.
The top junior is Luis Tuero (No. 211), the leading sophomores are Yordani Carmona (No. 95) and Michael Machin (No. 226), and big things are also expected – probably sooner rather than later – from top freshman Albert Hernandez (No. 21), a participant in last year’s inaugural 14u Perfect Game Select Baseball Festival.
Bielski is an old hand at welcoming back defending state championship teams. Before his terrific eight-year run at McCarthy, he coached Hialeah (Fla.) High School to state championships in 2001 and 2002, and then took a seven-year hiatus from coaching all together.
When this team first got together in the fall and then again right after Christmas, the conversation never really turned to the “six state championships in seven years” theme simply because it wasn’t necessary.
There is a huge banner on school field’s outfield fence listing the years of the state championships and the one USA Today national championship (2011); most of the 13 seniors on the roster are in possession of at least two championship rings, so there are plenty of reminders.
“They all know that’s our goal,” Bielski said. “Our goal is to be the best we can be each and every year and each and every day, and if we take care of business on a daily basis those things will work themselves out.”
The hope every year, Bielski explained, is for the team to be playing its best baseball when the FHSAA state playoffs begin the first week of May, and that’s certainly been the way six of the last seven seasons have played-out.
“Obviously, there are so many things that need to fall in line for you to really fulfill the potential of your team. You have to be healthy, you have to have great team chemistry and you have to be hot at the end of the year,” he said.
At first glance, it might appear that Toral wasn’t quite dialed-in at the plate during the 2016 high school season when he hit .310 and only seven of his 19 hits went for extra-bases (4 HRs); his 19 RBI ranked only seventh-best on his own team.
But those numbers are deceiving. His 37 walks tell the story of opposing teams pitching around him, being extra careful not to give such a dangerous hitter anything he could square-up on. His .558 on-base percentage was tops among the nine players who had at least 62 official at-bats.
“Sometimes he got a little anxious and saw other guys contributing and hitting and doing great things, and he started to chase a little bit out of the zone,” Bielski said. “He’s become more disciplined now at the plate, and at the Perfect Game showcases and tournaments, everybody’s great so he’s getting pitched to; you see the great things that he does.”
That was most certainly the case. Toral played in two PG WWBA tournaments with the Elite Squad Prime in 2016 – including the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla. – and was named to the all-tournament team at both. He was also honored with a spot on the Top Prospect List at the prestigious PG National Showcase which in turn earned him an invitation to last year’s Perfect Game All-American Classic in San Diego.
The Mavericks hit .375 as a team in 2016. They return their four top home run hitters in Adan Fernandez (7), Toral (4), Perez (4) and Lopez (4) and their four top RBI guys in Perez (37), Fernandez (32), Hendricks (28) and Lopez (28).
On the mound, the senior right-hander Leone (6-2, 1.79 ERA) made 11 starts; the sophomore left-hander Carmona (8-0, 1.19 ERA) made eight and the junior righty Martinez (6-0, 3.66 ERA) made seven; Leone had 15 total appearances and Carmona 13.
“They’ve become such good friends, it’s really a family atmosphere; a brotherhood,” Bielski said. “They hang-out together, they work-out together. They go from practice to the weight room together, and they’re just pushing each other constantly. For most of them, this is their third year on varsity and they’re looking to do special things.”
Toral and Federman are the only two current Maverick seniors that saw varsity action as freshman, but most of the rest of them were brought up to the varsity as sophomores in 2015, when the team won its fifth state championship in six years; they won again last year as juniors.
“We were a super young team (in 2015) in what many would consider a re-building year,” Bielski said. “But it was such a talented group, and I was even telling people, ‘If you’re going to get us, you better get us this year while these guys are sophomores.' Again, we were really able to get hot at the end.”
Former Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlins right-hander Alex Fernandez acts as McCarthy’s director of baseball operations and Bielski gives him the responsibility of putting together the team’s schedule every spring. Fernandez may have out-did himself this year, arranging match-ups with national powers like Lambert (Ga.), Stoneman Douglas (Fla.), American Heritage (Fla.), Westminster Christian (Fla.), Flanagan (Fla.) and Gulliver Prep (Fla.).
And then there is the Mavericks’ inclusion at the National High School Invitational, an elite 16-team tournament held annually in Cary, N.C., at the end of March. McCarthy is one of four Florida schools invited this year, joining American Heritage (Plantation), Canterbury School (Fort Myers) and Merritt Island (Merritt Island).
“That schedule that Alex (Fernandez) has made for us this year, I doubt that there is a tougher schedule in the country – there are just amazing teams on there from start to finish,” Bielski said. And, as the veteran head coach and winner of eight Florida high school state championships knows too well, it’s all about how a team finishes.
“Sometimes it’s even a mystery to (the coaching staff) how we just happen to play our best baseball at the end of the year and get hot at the right time,” he concluded. “But we’re loving it; we know that we’re living in a special time right now in our program’s history.”