Abreu Lights It Up At Hillsborough

 

By Ralph Morrow

 

Key West grad Mikey Abreu has had an outstanding sophomore baseball season at Hillsborough Community College, which won 25, lost 22 and tied 1.

 

 

The shortstop, playing in 46 of the team’s 48 games, batted a cool .400 which led the team, as did his at bats (190), runs (43), hits (76), triples (10), stolen bases (20) and slugging percentage (.574). His batting average was 45th among junior college batters nationally, while his triples placed him fourth nationally.

 

 

A Conch grad of a year ago, Chris Garcia, also turned in a fine season, as the utility player/pitcher batted .377 in 53 at bats. Garcia had six appearances on the mound for 15 2/3 innings with a 8.62 earned run average.

 

 

At University of South Florida, Michael Arencibia batted .250 in 29 of the team’s 56 games. Senior Nolan Thomas was 0-2 with an ERA of 4.70 as he pitched 7 2/3 innings for the Bulls.

 

 

Shortstop Frankie Ratcliff, playing for the ranked University of Houston baseball team, batted .277 as he started 49 of the team’s first 52 games. Ratcliff had a pair of home runs and 23 runs batted in. The Cougars were 42-15 as they played in the American Conference tournament. The Key West grad, who previously played at the University of Miami and Pensacola Junior College, was named preseason all-conference and was the conference Player of the Week on March 10. Last year at Houston, he was named the Conference-USA Newcomer of the Year as he batted .300.

 

 

In the pros, Ralphie Henriquez has been up and down this season. Most of the year, he has been at Altoona, Pittsburgh’s farm club in the Class AA Eastern League. As he continued in a prolonged batting slump that had him with 1 hit in 33 at bats for a .030 average, he was listed for awhile on the roster of the Pirates’ short season Class A team that wasn’t scheduled to play a game until June. In the last few weeks, with injuries hampering Pittsburgh’s top catchers, he was moved up to Indianapolis in the AAA International League, then back to Altoona, then back again to Indianapolis.

 

 

Big righthander Blayne Weller has been a relief pitcher most of the season at Class A Midwest League South Bend, an Arizona farm team, but he has started a pair of games, including a four-inning stint on May 20 when he gave up four runs. Overall, he had a 2-3 win-loss mark with an ERA of 4.97 over 29 innings in 12 games.

 

 

In the Major Leagues, Key West native Bronson Arroyo was 4-3 with an ERA of 4.45 in nine starts for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, Arroyo has always been a hitter and he was batting .263 with 5 hits in 19 at bats.

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