Cardinal Gibbons moves within one victory of first state baseball title since 1987
After scraping their way through virtually the entire regular season on good pitching, great defense and a timely hit here and there, it figured that the Cardinal Gibbons baseball team would lean on more of the same when it reached the big stage on Tuesday afternoon.
Taking on a Cinderella team making its first state final four appearance in 64 years, the Chiefs were anything but dominant or overwhelming. But what they were was good enough to scratch out a 3-2 victory over Mulberry in a Class 4A state semifinal contest at Hammond Stadium.
The win moves Gibbons (24-4) into the 4A state championship game on Wednesday at 5 p.m. where it will take on Merritt Island or Santa Rosa Beach South Walton with an opportunity to win only the second-ever state title for the program, having won the first back in 1987.
It will also be a chance to erase the tough memories of a heartbreaking extra inning loss to Melbourne Central Catholic in the title game five years ago when Gibbons had the potential winning run 90 feet away in the bottom of the seventh.
“We’ve been talking all week about that we haven’t been back since 2019 and as I’m getting older, my 26th year as a coach, when I walked off the field that day, you wondered if you would ever get back,” Gibbons coach Jason Hamilton said. “Now here we are having battled our way all the way back to the championship which is a really tough thing to do.”
Gibbons is back in the championship game thanks to three primary heroes from Tuesday. Pitchers Mike Kass and Jack Campbell and catcher Eddie Marshall.
Kass scattered five hits over his five innings of work before Campbell, inheriting a one-run lead the Chiefs had just taken in the last of the fifth when a two-out, bases-loaded wild pitch scored Victor Norori from third, did what he’s done all season, preserved a narrow lead.
He struck out the side in the sixth, giving up a one-out single in between before throwing just 10 pitches to retire the side in order in the seventh.
“Just a typical Cardinal Gibbons baseball game today,” Hamilton said. “The three guys in here at this press conference (Kass, Campbell and Marshall) have been the same three that have practically carried us over the last month. I don’t think we know anything different, it’s been that way all season for us. Never out of it, always punching and counterpunching and that’s just a testament to the character of these boys.”
On a team without a ton of offensive firepower, Marshall came up with the big hit of the day, a two-out, two RBI double in the third that staked the Chiefs to a 2-0 lead.
Gibbons jumped out in front in that third inning when George Stringos reached on a one-out error at second, was sacrificed down to second by Norrori, the No. 9 hitter, Randy Petron walked before Marshall stepped up and drilled a towering drive off the fence in left center scoring both runners.
“He didn’t have to throw me something good to me but he did but I got a fast ball out over the plate and caught it perfect,” Marshall said. “You just don’t let the moment get to you, that’s it. You take things pitch to pitch. You don’t think about the next one, you don’t think about the last one. You just stay in the present and that’s what I did.”
But Gibbons’ 2-0 lead was short-lived when the Panthers, who had not even qualified for regionals in 17 years and battled their way through their respective region as a No. 6 seed, struck back for two runs of their own in the fourth.
After Dominick Gotauco and Nick Partridge led off the inning with back-to-back singles, Kass struck out No. 4 hitter Hayden Wyatt.
Hoping for a ground ball double play that might get him out of the inning, Kass gave up a base hit to right off the bat of Brock Thielen scoring Gotauco from second.
But things only got worse when the ball got past right fielder Vynn Buerosse and by the time he chased it down, Partridge had come all the way around from first to score and Thielen wound up at second. Kass managed to induce a fly out to right and a ground out to shortstop to get out of the inning with no more damage done.
The fact that Kass was even on the mound on Tuesday was a remarkable feat in itself. Less than two years ago, he got the worst three words from a doctor a pitcher can hear – Tommy John surgery.
“He easily could’ve shut this down two months ago and I would’ve said ‘Mike, no problem,’” said Hamilton, who has been Gibbons’ head coach since the late 90s. “I just told him in the dugout after the game that you could’ve done that but he said to me “coach, I love this program, the best program I’m ever going to play for and I’m playing for everybody.’ I was crying as he was hugging me.”
Kass pitched his last high school game on Tuesday and his next stop is the University of Central Florida next fall.
“Sure there was a lot of doubt at some moments along the way when you go through surgery like that,” Kass said. “You have all the college recruiting going on and there is just so much stuff happening, you don’t know if you’re going to pitch. But I managed to overcome all the doubt and really wanted to get out there and pitch this year and to be able to go out there today and help my team on such a big stage feels great.”
Kass and Campbell also went out of there way to give a huge shout-out to Gibbons pitching coach Tim Shields.
“Coach Shields has everything to do with our success,” said Campbell. “He was in that dugout today calling another great game and we aren’t where we are today (playing for a state title) without him.”
