By Jack DaSilva
The Gainesville baseball team has started the season off right and they are building momentum.
The Purple Hurricanes have won six out of their last seven games, including an impressive 19-5 district romp over Middleburg last week.
“We’re pretty happy where we’re at,” said first-year head coach Chris Malphurs. “We play a tough schedule. I think that’s the first thing to point out.”
GHS knows this season isn’t going to be easy. Gainesville has scheduled some difficult games this year which should help them compete for the 7A-District 3 title.
“I think everybody’s got a shot,” said Malphurs. “The regular season games really matter because the way you set it up—the number one seed gets to host districts so that’s very important to us.”
Currently, GHS is on top of the district standings with a 3-1 record but by a very slim margin over 2-1 Columbia (Lake City) & Vanguard (Ocala).
“We’ve got to take every game and try to get a win because we definitely want to try and host if we can,” he added.
A big reason for the success this team has had is the chemistry.
Malphurs, who coached at Oak Hall last season, stated on The Prep Zone Show on Wednesday, March 15, that this team has the best chemistry of any team he’s ever been a part of.
“We’ve all pretty much played since freshmen year together and we were there for that District Championship in 2014 so we’ve kind of all grown up around each other,” said senior second basemen Tyler McNamee.
Senior Kyler Marquis has been a part of the Gainesville High School baseball team since his freshmen year as well.
“Being able to go out there with your friends and play the sport you love, it’s just amazing,” he said.
Judging by their performance this past week, the ‘Canes are peaking at the right time.
GHS (11-4) defeated Hillwood (TN), 5-0, on Friday at the Florida High School Invitational in Sanford. Class 7A Gainesville went 3-1 during its spring break tournament this week, including a 5-2 win on Thursday against Vero Beach, the 9th-ranked team in Class 9A.
Their only loss was to Hagery (Oviedo), which is ranked second in Class 8A in ThePrepZone.com state baseball rankings.
The Purple Hurricanes return to the area and take on Oak Hall on Tuesday, March 28.
GHS has done a great job offensively this year being shut out only once back on March 3rd against perennial power Jesuit (Tampa).
Being able to score and get ahead allows the Hurricanes to take pressure off their defense so they can focus on controlling the pace of the game.
Pitchers Chase DeMichele, Danny Sarmiento, Payton Wienburg, and Joseph Strong joined The Prep Zone Show as well to discuss the pitching on the team. These four players stressed that the coaching staff has done a great job getting them to focus on the mechanics of pitching and keeping them grounded to the basics.
“The pitching has been good so far,” explained Wienburg. “We’ve given up a few amount of runs here but other than that we’ve been doing pretty good.”
Strong is currently injured at the moment but he believes he’ll be ready to return to action after Spring Break which will greatly help out this GHS team.
The Gainesville Hurricanes have been an effective team with no bad losses yet. They have been great offensively and their pitching has been a team strength as well.
With a difficult schedule remaining, GHS will have plenty on their plate but if they continue to win their strength of schedule will keep them ranked and prepare them for post season play. In fact, the ‘Canes are an honorable mention in the Class 7A state rankings, and they are receiving votes in the all-classification regional rankings and are expected to crack the top 20 next week.
Gainesville baseball has a great coaching staff and a close team that are talented and will undoubtedly go far this year.
