Lakewood Ranch baseball team's quest continues

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Nine years ago, the majority of the players on the Lakewood Ranch High baseball team were in the midst of their Minor League careers.

The then-Little Leaguers were focused on learning how to pitch, improving their mechanics and making their respective All-Star teams.

At the time, those same players also were aware of the fact that the 2003 Mustangs were making a run toward the program’s first state title. But it would be nearly a decade before those players, who grew up watching Lakewood win its first state title with a 7-6 victory over Tallahassee Lincoln, would be on the verge of seeing their own state title dreams come to fruition.

Senior Seth McGarry was one of those players. McGarry remembers getting caught up in the excitement of watching Lakewood make its run.

“It was insane,” McGarry said of watching Lastings Milledge steal home to help the Mustangs come from behind to win a crucial game.

Now, McGarry and his teammates are two games away from creating their own state championship magic after defeating Winter Haven 4-1 in the Class 6A-Region 3 championship May 11.

With the win, the Mustangs will travel to Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie to face Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy in the Class 6A state semifinals at 7 p.m. May 17. The winner will face the winner of the other state semifinal between Pace and Melbourne in the state championship May 18.

“We’ve been stuck on that (regional) quarterfinal and once we got past that we knew we were going to be good,” McGarry said. “I’m pretty happy with our performance, and we’re going to keep it rolling.

“The thing we always say after we play a game or practice is family,” McGarry said. “We’re really tight with each other, and we’ve been working together since freshman year on JV to get to this point right here. So, this is huge for us, and we’re just going to try and keep it going.”

Lakewood advanced to the regional championship after defeating Tampa King 6-4 in the regional semifinals May 8. McGarry came on in relief to strike out the final two batters and preserve the win for the Mustangs before getting the call on the mound in the regional final.

McGarry, who suffered an elbow injury in the offseason, pitched his first complete game of the season, allowing two hits and three walks without allowing an earned run while striking out eight.

“I feel like it really played out to my advantage, because I was kind of able to relax and get back to where I should be; and I’m just coming back at the right time,” McGarry said of his injury.

“Without a doubt we knew we were throwing McGarry,” coach Mike Mullen said. “He’s been working his whole life for this game, and we were happy to give it to him. It was Seth’s game. He was going to be pitching this game regardless.”

Lakewood took a 3-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the first inning when catcher Tyler Dauphinee hit a bases clearing double to drive in Justin Greenaway, Zack Larson and Brandon King, who all drew walks.

“He deserves a lot of credit for this win,” Mullen said. “He had the three RBIs in the first inning, and up until (Bryan) Vanvranken’s home run, that was all of our scoring. He deserves a ton of credit for calling the game the way that he did, because I let him call his own game. For him to get the double with the bases loaded couldn’t be sweeter for him, for our team and for his family.”

The Devils scored their lone run in the top of the third inning on a wild pitch, but McGarry retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced.

“I accidentally threw a cutter, and after we got out of that, then I knew it was going to be a good night,” McGarry said.

Lakewood responded in the bottom of the sixth inning on a solo home run by Bryan Vanvranken to seal the victory for the Mustangs.

Vanvranken went 1-for-1 with a home run, two walks, a RBI and two runs scored and Dauphinee went 1-for-3 with a double and three RBIs to lead the way for the Mustangs at the plate.

“Every high school coach’s dream is to take his kids to the Final Four,” Mullen said. “It’s difficult because you get over there and you get out of your element and your routine, but the team that handles it the best is typically the team that wins it. We just have to figure out a way to keep our kids even keel and that’s one thing about our kids is that we don’t get too high or we don’t get too low.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].