FORT MYERS, Fla. – It appears the Florida Burn 2018 Platinum just needed to add a little aluminum to their diet in an effort to get completely healthy again. This wasn’t a death-bed illness by any stretch – in fact, the Burn 2018 Platinum never missed a day of work – but they were feeling a little sluggish, at least in the batter’s box.
This Sarasota, Fla.-based Burn Platinum outfit arrived here in Southwest Florida on Monday ready to get after it at the 17u Perfect Game BCS National Championship after spending the previous week in North Georgia competing at the 17u PG WWBA National Championship.
They finished 4-2-0 after a 4-0 loss to FTB Tucci in the Round of 32 in the 128-team playoffs at the 17u WWBA, and scored 28 runs using wood bats, an average of about 4½ runs per game. That’s really not bad run production, and 12 team members were named to the all-tournament team, but maybe a quick shot of BBCOR would produce a little more firepower in the Burn’s bats.
Lo and behold, the team jumped into action at the BBCOR-only 17u BCS and in its first four pool-play games – all victories – pushed 39 runs across the plate, an average of almost 10 per outing. The Burn 2018 Platinum’s opposition scored only one run those same four games.
“We had a few games in Atlanta where we swung the bat well, but maybe getting the metal bats back in their hands has rejuvenated them a little bit,” Guthrie said Thursday morning, speaking from inside Clemente Field’s third base dugout at the Terry Park complex. “They’re doing fine, but we have a way to go and some good pitching still to see, so we’ll see what happens.”
Matheu Nelson – a 2018 catcher from Largo, Fla., who is ranked No. 98 overall nationally and has committed to Florida State – also thinks there’s something to this whole BBCOR bat explanation.
“We’re hitting a lot better with aluminum than we were with wood up in Atlanta, and I don’t know if that’s a comfort thing or if that’s a confidence thing – some guys are scared they’re going to get shafted and snap a (wood) bat,” he said through a laugh. “It is possible to build some momentum now down here, and we’ve been playing really good this week. I just hope we can keep it going.”
All-important bracket-play doesn’t get underway until Saturday, but four games into their six-game pool-play schedule, the Burn 2018 Platinum certainly had it going. The 39-1 run differential is nothing short of eye-popping, and this is a talented team that isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
The Burns’ pitching staff threw shutouts in each of the first three games before finally allowing a run in game four. And even then, 2018 right-hander Benjamin Specht was pretty special, allowing the run on just two hits while striking out 10 and walking one in six innings.
Eight of the Burn Platinum’s top 2018 prospects are ranked as top-500s nationally, with Nelson (No. 98), Luca Tresh (No. 118, North Carolina State commit), Specht (No. 202, Florida) and Eric Kennedy (No. 286, Texas) all ranked in the top-300.
Twelve of the players have committed to NCAA Division I programs, including Arkansas, Clemson, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Mississippi, North Carolina State, South Florida, Stetson, Texas and Texas Christian.
Being given the opportunity to play at a D-I national championship-caliber program is something every one of these Burn players appreciates and is grateful for, but it’s not the only reason they’ve been out here grinding away on a baseball field every summer since most of them were 12 years old.
“It’s mainly the fact that we come out here because we love the game of baseball,” Nelson said. “You represent the (high) school you play for and then you represent the (college) that you’re going to play for in the future, so it kind of works both ways.”
The Burn 2018 Platinum is considered the top 17u team in the Florida Burn program – the Burn 2018 and Burn 2018 Premium are also here this week – and like the top teams at the other elite travel team organizations, the roster has gone through some turnover.
The biggest roster change with the 2018 Platinum this year was the addition of Nelson, right-hander/infielder Max Munroe and left-hander/utility Doug Nikhazy (t-500, Ole Miss) who all played up with the Burn 2017 Platinum last year.
“They’ve been big contributors and they’ve been through a lot of these events,” Guthrie said. “With them going through the summer and into Jupiter last year, that should help us quite a bit.”
Nelson is playing with his age-group peers for the first time in two years and is really enjoying himself. He called the 2017s “some serious characters” and he thinks this group of 2018s might take the game a little more seriously. Please understand he does not mean that as criticism of the 2017s, he was only pointing out a difference in the two groups’ overall personalities.
“As far as how we’ve been playing as a team and how strong the competition has been, everything has been good so far,” he said.
With the way travel ball is evolving and with many of the most elite players getting pulled in different directions as the end of the summer season draws near, the thing that Guthrie feels sets this team apart is that they pretty much show up ready to play whenever they’re called upon to do so.
“They’ve had the right attitude with their approach to the game,” he said. “They’re still out here to compete and have fun playing and let the rest take care of itself.”
This is the sixth year the Florida Burn Baseball organization has fielded top-tier travel ball teams under Guthrie’s direction, and it is well-established as one of the country’s most prominent programs. It continues to grow with more and more youngsters showing up for team tryouts every year, which has had the direct result of adding valued depth to each one of those teams.
“It’s a little bit of a different dynamic, but it all goes back to that first group that we had – the types of kids that we had – that kind of created the whole environment for our organization,” said Guthrie, who spent 15 years pitching in the big leagues. Those kids have gone on – they’re still playing and they’re still very successful – and these guys are kind of following that. It makes it easier for us coaches to demand that type of play, and once they fall into that, that’s what we’re most proud of.”
That first group, assembled as a 16u team in the summer of 2012, did some phenomenal things right of the gate. The Florida Burn Orange won PG national championships at the 2012 16u PG World Series and the 2012 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship, and finished as runner-up at the 2012 16u East Memorial Day Classic. A year later, the Florida Burn finished as runner-up at the 2013 PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
Four members of that team – Michael Byrne (class of 2015), Dalton Guthrie (2014), Deacon Liput (2015) and Mike Rivera (2014) – went on to play at Florida, where last month they were important members of the Gators’ College World Series and NCAA D-I National Championship team.
Florida beat Louisiana State in the best-of-3 CWS championship series, which was a little bittersweet for Mark Guthrie – he is, after all, an LSU alumnus and he’s long been a fan of the Bayou Bengals. But there are six players on the Florida Gators’ roster that went through the Florida Burn program, so allegiances were shifted.
“Those six kids had been with us for four years, so it was a little bit of a different dynamic,” he said. “It’s not just my son (Dalton), but blood is thicker than water and I was like a dad to all of them; getting to watch them succeed at that level is really what it’s all about.”
Although Nelson has committed to Florida’s in-state rival Florida State, he would certainly like to enjoy the same kind of success those Gators’ had, whether it’s in Tallahassee or at the professional level someday. He feels like being with the Florida Burn program is a great place to start.
“I have a lot of respect for Mark Guthrie and this organization,” Nelson said. “I just love the organization; they’ve been nothing but good to me. I came over two years ago and I’ve just absolutely loved every single moment with them.
“You learn a lot with these guys; you get better with these guys,” he continued. “Coach Guthrie has helped me learn how to call games on my own just by going over pitch selection, and he’s helped me both on and off the field.”
The Florida Burn 2018 Platinum team members seem to agree it’s been a good summer as far as their play on the field goes and, most importantly, it’s been a fun one too. The summer before the start of their senior year in high school is always an important one for young prospects and things won’t be quite the same next summer when they’re looking at starting collegiate or professional careers.
This Burn Platinum team will also be playing at the PG WWBA World Championship in October which is always something to look forward to, but that’s putting the caboose in front of the locomotive. Right now, there’s this little matter of winning the 17u PG BCS National Championship, an event at which the Florida Burn 2017 Platinum finished as runner-up a year ago.
“We still have a lot of pitching left but that can stop in one day. You run into one buzz saw here and you get sent home,” Guthrie said. “But we play pretty good defense – it’s probably one of the better defensive teams we’ve had – and we can run the bases pretty well.
“We have our days when we’re pretty good at the plate and then we have our days when we have to manufacture and try to get by and hope that our pitching and defense carries us.”
Sounds like it’s time for another shot of BBCOR.