Barron Collier Advances To State Final Four With 7-1 Win

The Cougars dogpile after winning the regional championship.

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A strong pitching performance and fundamental execution helped lead Barron Collier to the state Final Four thanks to a 7-1 victory over Dunedin in Tuesday’s Class 6A regional championship. The host Cougars received five shutout innings from starter Nick Geller and also executed four successful suicide-squeeze bunts to account for more than enough offense.

Barron Collier (20-9) will face Mosley in a 6A state semifinal next Wednesday. The Dolphins (19-9) advanced with a 5-1 win over Terry Parker in their regional championship.

Making his 13th start of the year, Geller settled in and hit his spots almost immediately. The right-hander carved his way through the first four innings, working around a trio of walks to keep the Falcons (15-15) off the scoreboard. Geller relied on his offspeed stuff early on, and he made numerous adjustments throughout the game to stay ahead of the hitters by attacking their weaknesses.

“It was just about seeing what each guy can hit and what they can’t hit, and just adjusting from that point there,” Geller said. “Most of it is in-game adjustments between me and my pitching coach, Coach Mo. We talk in between every inning and see what we need to do. I just go with the flow and throw what the coach calls.”

The ability to throw his fastball and curveball for strikes helped lead Geller to his seventh win of the season. More importantly, the Cougars return to the state Final Four for the first time in ten years in pursuit of their second title in program history.

“It’s amazing we’re going to jetBlue, playing so close to home. We’re shooting for a state title and it’s like nothing else,” Geller said.

Dunedin got its first hit of the night in the fifth when John Paul Andrade laid down a nice bunt single. Ray Sass worked a walk to follow to keep things going, before Geller switched speeds and began to pound the zone with his fastball. A ground out and a line-out to left field ended the threat.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Cougars manager Charlie Maurer said of his ace. “He works hard and is very mature and responsible. We give him a game plan going in and he is not scared of anything. He just goes up there and doesn’t try to be someone that he is not, and you can see it out there. It’s just a testament to how hard he works and to how good of a kid he is.”

The Barron Collier offense wasted little time in getting the lead for its ace by jumping out 1-0 in the bottom of the first. Catcher Marc Coffers has led the offense all season, and in his first at bat he continued that trend with by lacing a gap-shot into deep left-center field and then racing around to slide safely into third base with a two-out triple. Logan Langham sent the first pitch he saw back up the middle for an RBI single and a lead the Cougars never relinquished.

They increased that margin with the deciding run in the bottom of the fourth. Jack Bueltel reached on a error, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball and then scored when Brock Nichols dropped down a perfect squeeze-bunt for the RBI. Gabe Noguera added another squeeze-bunt RBI that plated Coffers in the fifth, after Coffers walked, advanced when Langham reached on an error and both then pulled off a successful double steal.

A four-run sixth inning put the final touches on the night. Bueltel reached on an error, Nichols walked and Marcus Crabtree drilled an RBI single up the middle. Billy Zeliff executed another textbook squeeze-bunt, and Coffers came through behind him with another equally-successful squeeze play.

“It’s our style. We don’t have a bunch of big boppers in the lineup and we played small-ball all year long,” Maurer said. “That’s what got us here and we’re not going to change. This is who we are; we are going to make other teams to make a play and force them to beat us. You’ve got to make plays to beat us, and that is kind of our motto going into this. It’s been a fairytale year and it’s just surreal right now to be able to go. Everyday we were preaching to go to jetBlue and to finally be there is just awesome.”

The Falcons avoided the shutout with their final swings, in one final rally attempt. Andrade reached on an error and then raced all the way around the bags to score thanks to an RBI single from Sass on a liner past first and deep into the right field corner.

Reliever Nick Denove induced a grounder to first that closed it out.

“I loved the way they played and how they went about it,” Falcons manager Ron Sexton said about the opposing Cougars. “I applaud their efforts tonight, I applaud the way they play the game of baseball and that is a better baseball team over there. I think in time we have a very good chance to match that kind of level, if we keep working at it.”

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