With the imminent arrival of spring, the days are becoming increasingly warmer, the trees are greener and the skies are bluer. Collectively, all of these things signify one thing for Cavalier sports: the baseball season has arrived.

However, while the spring season has only just begun, the team has been preparing for months on end for the arrival of the official season. While many Gables sports begin their conditioning and practice routines as the regular season approaches, baseball is one of the few Cavalier sports that are played year round, and this has in large part to do with the fact that the skills involved with the sport are very mechanical and require a lot of practice. For this very reason, the Cavalier Baseball team participates in a voluntary fall season, allowing them to not only perfect their skills, but also giving the players and coaches the opportunity to improve their abilities and grow as a team.

The 2018 fall baseball season for the Cavs was, in the eyes of many of the players, a tremendous success. Sporting a winning percentage of over .500, the team feels they are more than ready to take on the obstacles they are sure to face throughout the duration of the lengthy season. It allowed the players to get used to each other, it introduced new varsity call-ups to the varsity culture and it gave the team the opportunity to have fun during the fall and prepare for the spring appropriately, keeping their strengths and weaknesses in mind.

“I personally think that the fall season went great, and it showed the true potential that we have as a team,” senior Erick Denis said.

Once the fall season was over, the stage was set for the upcoming spring season to be a successful one, and the team has been working tremendously hard to live up to their own expectations. The baseball team is known for having incredibly long practices, many of which last until about 6:30 or 7:00 P.M. On a typical day, the junior varsity and varsity squads will be split up into the two sides of the field to stretch and toss. After that, the coaches decide how the two teams will be divided, and they will either hit the batting cages for some hitting drills, or work on in-game scenarios that need to be improved upon, like hitting the cut-off man from the outfield, bunt defense and base running.

The team credits a lot of their chemistry and success to their remarkable coaching staff, led by Coach Padron, who is accompanied by Coach Antonini and Coach Jesse Fernandez. Padron, having coached the USA national baseball team is highly regarded around the clubhouse as a manager. Antonini, a former University of Miami and University of Central Florida baseball player, made it to the upper levels of the minor leagues before deciding to take up coaching, and Fernandez, the pitching coach, played Division 1 college baseball as well.

“I think we may possibly have one of the best coaching staffs in Miami-Dade County. Because of them, I think we are more than ready for the upcoming season,” junior Bryan Perez said.

In their first game of the spring, the Cavalier team faced a remarkably formidable opponent in the Columbus Explorers, falling 9-0 in the season opener. However, this does not deter the team’s goals of vying for a District or Regional title and wanting to make a name for themselves in their athletic district and abroad. Despite a rough patch in game one, the Cavs will have a minimum of 20 more games to compensate for it, and they have full intentions to do so. Be sure to catch the next Cavalier Baseball game on Tuesday, Feb. 26, when they take on Mater Lakes High!