Dunwoody Baseball Players Enjoy Spring Break

Coach Chan English sensed the ribbing was unavoidable Thursday, when he finally drove the Dunwoody baseball team's rented van back to the hotel, after those wrong turns through the seediest parts of downtown Ft. Lauderdale.

Players in assistant coach Jon Peters' other van were long back in their rooms, poised to tease.

"They were all shaking their heads at me," English said. "They show no mercy. Now they don't want to ride with me because my i-phone doesn't have good GPS."

Good thing English and his players have known their way around Ft. Lauderdale baseball diamonds this spring break. After shutting out Florida's Western 10-0, South Plantation 9-0 and extending shutout innings to 14 in a 7-2 loss to Nova, the Wildcats (11-5) wrap up their week of friendly games tonight against Northeast. It'll be their final game of a 10th consecutive spring break in greater Ft. Lauderdale, where assistant coach Tom Bass coached before coming to Dunwoody.

Last year, the Wildcats went 2-2 against the same four teams picked for their competitiveness.

"The competition we play here prepares us for the final stretch of the season up in Georgia," said junior catcher Jared Martin. "These are some pretty good teams down here."

Dunwoody hopes games in Florida prepare it for the regular season's final Region 6-AAAA ones against Carver, Lakeside, Lithonia, Southwest DeKalb and Redan, beginning Monday. And if the Wildcats play then like they have this week, it could mean the first trip past the second round of the state playoffs since wining state under Bass in 2007.

"We've got several kids who've been around Dunwoody baseball for a long time," English said. "Their ultimate goal, obviously, is to make it back to the final."

English has liked his team's play, particularly the 14 straight shutout innings to start off in Florida. Impressive, too, was scoring twice against a Nova team that came in having shut out 11 opponents among 14 wins. Dunwoody shortstop Zach Tonner and second baseman Stelen Stulburger both were batting .500 entering spring break, and Tonner was a perfect 7-of-7 in stolen bases. Stulburger keyed the shutout of Western by batting 2-for-2 with a double, and outfielder Blaine Broth had two hits against Western and both RBI against Nova.

Logan Elliott (2-3) pitched the five-inning shutout against Western, and James Farnell (3-0) one-hit South Plantation through five innings. The Nova loss disrupted Wes Bancroft's 0.64 ERA, but his pair of singles helped his cause.

In addition to good competition, the Wildcats go to Ft. Lauderdale each break to build camaraderie. Thursday and Saturday were off days to hit the beach, shop and laze around, things players can't do with diverging schedules in Georgia.

"Basically," outfielder Mason Wood said, "when we get back to Atlanta, we hit the ground running and get ready for region and state (playoffs)."

Meanwhile, until Sunday's flight home, there's plenty more teasing to go. One of the team's biggest players, infielder Chris Hale, hasn't lived down showing remorse after killing a cockroach in his hotel room.

"For a big guy, he got pretty pittiful about killing that thing," Martin joked. "He was a man about it at first, but then got pretty emotional about it. He's definitely got a little touchy side to him."