Coral Springs Charter Wins Big Over Archbishop Carroll

Coral Springs Charter started slow but finished fast Wednesday as the Panthers opened the regional playoffs with a 14-4 win over Archbishop Carroll in the only quarterfinal played in Broward thanks to Mother Nature.

Charter, which at 22-7 set a school record for single-season victories, advances to a semifinal Tuesday against the winner of tonight’s North Broward Prep-Monsignor Pace game slated for 7 p.m. That is, of course, weather permitting.

Charter starter Brent Kessinger gave up two runs early before Joe McChrystal belted one of his three hits for a two-run double to break open the game in the second, giving the Panthers a 5-2 lead. Cody Woodburn added a three-run triple in a nine-run third inning to expand the lead.

Kessinger “wasn’t as sharp as we’d like him to be, but he settled down and composed himself and gave us a great opportunity to win. He’s been our horse all year,” Coral Springs Charter Manager Dan Rovetto said.

Kessinger, a lefty who improved to 6-1, made up for the slow start by being effective in shutting down the Bulldogs’ running game, something that Rovetto said was a big factor in the victory.

“We’ve been playing the defense we’ve been playing all year,” Rovetto said. “We pitch to contact because none of our guys have been striking out a lot of batters. Once we got the lead, we kept pitching to contact and forced them to put the ball in play, and that was key for us.”

Jorge Solano, who “had a huge game for us in the leadoff spot,” Rovetto said, went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs, and Brandon Laboy went 2-for-2 with two RBIs.

Now the Panthers can focus on their opponent in the regional semifinal round. Charter is, of course, very familiar with North Broward Prep, the team it beat for the district title last week, but Rovetto said he knows little about this year’s Pace team. It doesn’t matter, however.

“I just know about their tradition, and that’s enough for me,” Rovetto said. “We know if we end up down in Opa-locka, that’s going to be a challenge. Our kids know they have to come to compete.”

Playing North Broward wouldn’t be a picnic either. Charter battled to 4-2 win over North Broward in the district championship. The Eagles handed the Panthers their first loss of the season, 3-0 on Feb. 26. It was the first of four losses in a row for Charter, which was 6-6 before turning things around in mid-March. A 4-3 win over American Heritage on March 15 got the Panthers back on the right track and sparked a second half of the season that saw Charter lose just once, 8-5 to another district rival, Pine Crest, on April 2.

“[North Broward Prep Manager] Brian [Campbell] always has his kids ready to play, and we learned that from the district tournament,” Rovetto said. “In this district, every day in and day out, you’re playing someone competitive. There’s no cupcakes. We feel like we’re prepared. There’s no question our kids are battled-tested. We put them in some different environments. We went down to Dade early in the year. That was all part of what we tried to do.”

The Archbishop Carroll-Coral Springs Charter game was just one of two to be played and finished Wednesday. as the weather certainly didn’t allow for much baseball to be played in the South Florida region. Killian and Southwest managed to get their game in as well.

In a proactive move, Rovetto and Archbishop Carroll Manager Jorge Gutierrez agreed to move their game from a 6 p.m. start to a 1 p.m. start, just in time to get the game in before the rain came.

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