Florida may sound like a dreamy getaway for Spring Break. Rest assured, a visit to the “Sunshine State” for the third straight year is a business trip for Christ School varsity baseball.
The Greenies are once again in the field for the Florida League High School Invitational which runs March 9-13.
“We enjoy it. It’s a competitive atmosphere. The guys get to enjoy the warm weather and it puts them in a really focused mindset for the longer half of our season,” Coach Cody Geyer said. “We’re going to play teams down there that are really good baseball teams, so we’ve got to be mentally-focused. And it’s a good time for us to get right mentally.”
The Greenies (1-1) will be guaranteed at least four games in Sanford, Fla., which is about 20 miles northeast of Orlando. The schedule is still being finalized with opponents expected to include Lake Highland Prep (Fla.), TNXL Academy (Fla.), and Colonial (Fla.).
Christ School came out swinging in its most recent game – Saturday’s 11-3 win at Charlotte Country Day. The Greenies got three RBIs apiece from Garrett Clapsaddle ’21, Isaiah Lowe ’22, and winning pitcher Jack Galbraith ’20.
“Saturday, our guys went into Charlotte with a really good mindset. Any time you put up 11 runs in five innings against a good, well-coached baseball team, that is definitely a step in the right direction,” Coach Geyer said. “Especially when we felt like we didn’t play anywhere close to our potential in our first two games. We weren’t as focused as we should have been.”
In the field, the Greenies have seven starters back from last year’s 20-5 Carolinas Athletic Association championship team. So far, the leaders in batting average are Michael Posse ’22 (.500), Garrett (.429), Jack Sutton ’20 (.429), Isaiah (.400), and Andrew Grande ’21 (.400).
Most of the pitching will be done this spring by some combination of Jack, Isaiah, Michael, and Parker Johnson ‘21.
“It’s a really good group to work with. We’ve got a bunch of really good kids who work hard,” Coach Geyer said. “The biggest difference from last year is we had two (pitchers) who we could give the ball to and we knew we were going to have a dang good chance to get a victory with the other team only scoring 2-3 runs. We have four to five guys on our staff with the same physical ability. They’re just younger and not as polished. We have a ton of talent on this team, it’s just making sure they are prepared.”