Conchs open regular

Season Friday night

 

BY RALPH MORROW

MANAGING EDITOR

And how good is this year’s Key West High School baseball team? Was that a mirage that played out last weekend in the Chas Freeman Preseason Tournament as the young Conchs of Ralph Henriquez Jr. blew up Somerset Academy, 21-0, and Southridge, 8-1?

We should know more this weekend as Rockledge High arrives for 7:30 p.m. games Friday and Saturday at Rex Weech Field. But we may not know the final answer to the question for several weeks as the season winds through District 16-4A games.

The two rousing victories were certainly a cause for celebration and optimism among Conch fans, who included the more than 500 who showed up for last Friday’s bashing. Already, in two preseason games, the class 4A Conchs have doubled their home run output of a season ago, when they won 12, lost 12.

Stevie Wells, known first of all for his suburb fielding in center field, was a .300 hitter as a junior, but then he hit homers over the fence in both games last weekend. He was joined in the homer parade by Darren Miller, who did not surprise as a long-ball hitter, and Hugo Valdes, the hard-hitting first baseman.The rest of the hitting in the two routs was, of course, suburb, as Andy Perez, Greg Velez, Hunter Sellers, Chris Varela and Gus Gato pounded the ball.

On Friday night, Brandon Presley and Wells combined for a four-inning perfect game over outclassed Somerset. On Saturday night, Veliz, Miller and Wells stopped class 8A Southridge, which gave portents of being a worthy opponent. The only dark spot last weekend came when Miller, while pitching, felt a twinge of pain in his pitching arm, and ran off the mound. His ailment is not thought to be serious.

All in all, it was a good Conch weekend and now two games against Rockledge, a Class 5A team that won the state 4A championship 10 years ago, will provide more answers — but probably not the definitive one.

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