ARMCHAIR COMMENT

Ratcliff’s Houston team advances to Super Regionals

BY RALPH MORROW

While every team from Florida has been eliminated from the College Baseball World Series, a Key West High grad will be playing this weekend in the Super Regionals that lead to the CWS.

That would be Frankie Ratcliff, the senior starting shortstop at the University of Houston. After defeating Bryant in last weekend’s Regionals, the Cougars lost to Louisiana State before rallying to defeat the Tigers twice, 12-2 in the championship game as Ratcliff , batting cleanup, collected a pair of runs, hits and runs batted in in three at-bats.

Houston, now 48-16, will play Texas at Austin in the best 2-of-3 Super Regionals with the winner advancing to Omaha. The first game is at 4 p.m., Friday, and is scheduled to be televised on ESPN2. The 2 p.m., Saturday, game is to be televised on ESPN. If there is a Sunday game, it will also be at 2 p.m.

Ratcliff is hitting .279 with 2 home runs and 28 RBI in 59 games. The Ratcliff, 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.

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 at Hillsborough, as the freshman 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.

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 and back to Altoona. He played one game at Indy, going 0-for-3 at the plate. On Sunday, the switch-hitter finally broke out of his slump with a pair of hits to kick his average up to .073.

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 four games, including a six-plus-inning stint on May 30 when he gave up but one run on three hits and one walk, while striking out nine without getting the decision. Overall, he has a 2-3 win-loss mark with an ERA of 4.39 over 41 innings in 14 games.

In the Major Leagues, Key West native Bronson Arroyo is 4-4 with an ERA of 4.39 in 11 starts for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, Arroyo has always been a hitter and he is batting .227 with 5 hits in 22 at bats.

 

 

 

 

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