Coral Gables A's Stories: 2025 Florida Invitational, Pt. 2

Sheehan Planas-Arteaga
Oct 24
8 min read

The Coral Gables A's faced two arch rivals in one day. How will it end???

On Day 1 of the Florida Invitational, the Coral Gables A’s administered a level of punishment thought to be banned by the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Day 2 was sure to provide us with a tougher task, for we were set to play against the two teams who’ve beaten us in our last two championships: the Plant City Skyhawks, who beat us in the championship of this same tournament last year, and Team Venezuela (called Travel Team Miami in this tourney), who beat us in the championship of our home league. Time to slay two dragons in one day.

Here’s how Game 1 went down.

Joeanthony

On the mound for us would be Joeanthony. I’d like to pat myself on the back for this one. As a former teammate of Joeanthony at both the collegiate and professional level, it was I who recruited him to come chuck some heaters for the A’s. We both got drafted out of Barry University. I also could not have picked a better game for him to throw; against the best hitting team in the tournament (besides us), who broke our hearts last year.

Joeanthony is a tall lefty who throws from a low ¾ arm slot and generates a ton of grounders with a power sinker, changeup, and slider. He also competes like a bull dog. I knew everyone would feed off him.

He struck out two in a 1-2-3 top of the 1st.

On the mound for them was another lefty, although this one was of the crafty variety, which is our least favorite thing in the world. If he could spot up his pitches and keep us off balance, we’d be in for a battle. He worked around two walks and induced an inning-ending double play in the bottom half of the 1st.

Back and Forth

Joeanthony got ambushed by their big bopper in the top of the 2nd. This is the same guy responsible for the game-winning hit last year. He is a big lefty with huge power who swings for the fences as often as he can. He jumped on the first pitch he saw, which happened to be a fastball down the middle, and rocketed it over the right field fence. 1-0. No one else sniffed the ball, as Joeanthony struck out the side apart from the homer.

Joe, who was playing right field in this game, reached on a dropped third strike to start the bottom half of the 2nd. After a fielder’s choice moved him to second, Andy, our first baseman, walked. Two batters later, the younger Gomez brother (G2) lined a single that brought one in, while Andy would score on a passed ball during the next at bat. It was 2-1 after the 2nd.

Joeanthony worked around a bloop hit in the 3rd and struck out yet another hitter, his sixth of the game. In the bottom of the 3rd, I hit a two-out double, then stole third. Their catcher, who was having a tough game, allowed another pitch to squeak by him, which I scored on. 3-1, us.

Open the Flood Gates

Joeanthony worked around a walk and a single and racked up another strikeout in the 4th, making it seven on the day. Gomez, the eldest, led off the bottom of the 4th with a laser beam through the hole for a single. This brought Joe to the plate, who decided to one-up Gomez by launching a pitch over the left field fence for a two-run jack (video above, great home run call from Peewee). Jorge kept the party going by lining a single up the middle and Andy followed suit with another single. Juany walked, bringing G2 to the plate with the bases loaded.

You can always count on G2 in these types of situations, and he lived up to his billing when he shot a ball down the third base line for a bases-clearing double. Alex gave us yet more life, with an RBI single on his own, bringing G2 around to score. Make that six runs for the A’s in the 4th, making it 9-1. The fact that this happened against this specific team made it that much sweeter. Wish we could’ve hit like this last year.

Fighting Back

You have to give the Skyhawks credit: they can hit. They’re never truly out of a game with the lineup they have, and coupled with the fact that we tend to kick the ball around like morons in the field, no lead was completely safe.

Despite two singles and a walk, which scored one, Joeanthony was in position to escape the 5th with only one run allowed. Alas, we booted a ball in the outfield that would’ve been the final out of the inning. Instead, two unearned runs scored, and a single after the errors brought another in. It was now 9-5. That cushiony lead was fun for the 10 minutes it lasted.

We went 1-2-3 in the top of the 6th. Joeanthony, apart from the home run way back in the 2nd, was not giving up hard contact and didn’t seem like he was losing any bite on his pitches. We decided to keep rolling with him in the 6th, and were rewarded for it. He too retired the side in order, and added his eighth K on the day. That’s how you bounce back from a challenging inning.

Putting Things to Bed

We strung together a rally in the top of the 7th, mostly by taking what the opposition was giving us. Amed, Joe, Jorge, Andy, Peewee, and I all drew walks, while Juany and Nick reached on errors. Couple the free bases with a big hit from Nick, who hit twice in the inning, and a sac fly by me, and we came out of it having tacked four more runs on the board. 13-5. With a scoreless bottom half, we’d secure the knockout, which kicks in if you’re up by eight or more by the 7th or later.

We replaced one big lefty with another in Aldo. Although Aldo was scheduled to pitch later on in the tournament, he treated this inning like a bullpen to keep his arm feeling fresh. A real bullpen might’ve been better for him, as he went 1-2-3 on less than ten pitches, picking up a strikeout in the process. And that’s all she wrote.

13-5 victory. The sting of last year’s championship game will always be there, but goddamnit did it feel good to whoop their asses, even though the stakes weren’t as high.

We were set to play another group of heartbreakers in Game 2, and not ‘cause they’re handsome.

Edilson

Edilson would be throwing Game 2 for us. Edilson pitched in the Twins organization, then became the all-time wins leader in the Pecos League, one of the top Independent pro leagues. He’s a big righty who fills up the zone with a fastball, splitter, curveball, and probably a few more pitches; there’s a reason he had so much success as a pro.

Team Venezuela doesn’t care who’s on the bump, however. They battle through it all. They slapped two singles in the first, the second one to Joe in right field. Joe happens to have a Winchester rifle for a right arm; he came up firing and delivered a strike to home plate to nail the runner. We escaped the 1st inning unscathed.

On the mound for them was a guy we’ve faced a couple times. He pitched in the Braves organization. Throws decently hard. Very good slider. Despite X and Nick drawing walks, we were unable to push them across. 0-0 after one.

Edilson went 1-2-3 in the 2nd, striking out his second hitter. We strung something together in the bottom half. Jorge led off with a single, Andy walked, and Juany hit another single. After a flyout that wasn’t deep enough to score Jorge from third, Alex drew a base-loaded walk that brought home his older brother. 1-0. We wouldn’t score after that.

A’s Baseball

Our defense bit us in the ass in the 3rd. With the last out of the inning seemingly secured, we made an errant throw, then messed up a rundown on the bases. One disastrous play resulted in two unearned runs scoring. 2-1, Venezuela.

Amed hit a single and stole second in the bottom of the 3rd, but we were unable to bring him around to score.

Edilson was locked in after the funky 3rd inning. He worked around a single in the top of the 4th and picked up his third K. Nick led off the bottom of the 4th with a single, and Gomez drew a walk. We couldn’t capitalize, however, as a few hard-hit balls right at people ended our would-be rally.

Edilson again worked around a base hit and struck out another hitter in a scoreless 5th. His game plan was simple: pitch to contact with no one on base, and wipe them out if he ever got in trouble. Still 2-1 heading to the bottom of the 5th.

Willy

Andy led off the 5th with a scorcher down the third base line for a double. Juany then hit a single, pushing Andy to third. G2 walked, loading the bases for Willy.

Willy does not get cheated when he swings. As a result, when he connects, the ball ends up going places. This was the spot for him to connect, and boy, did he ever. Willy sent a fastball over the left fielder’s head for a bases-clearing double. We’d been getting big hits in big spots all tournament, and that trend continued here. 4-2, us, after five.

The Edilson Show

We made an error behind Edilson in the top of the 6th, but it didn’t matter, as he induced a double play and struck out his fifth hitter of the day. We went 1-2-3 in the bottom half.

Edilson seemed to be getting stronger as the game went on. He struck out the side in the 7th. Make that eight strikeouts on the day, compared to one walk, all the way back in the 1st.

We tacked on two more in the bottom of the 7th. Joe drew a one-out walk, Jorge squared up a line drive for a single, Juany walked, and G2 hit into a fielder’s choice that brought a run in. The other scored on a passed ball (we’d been getting extremely lucky with those). 6-2 after 7.

Edilson was still dealing, but a costly error brought a run in for Team Venezuela. He struck out his ninth batter though, so that was cool. 6-3, us, going into the 9th.

Knockout Punch

Willy got plunked to lead off the 9th. Peewee followed him and…also got hit by a pitch. Amed then singled to load the bases. After two quick outs (one of them being me after I struck out for the third time, but that’s neither here nor there), Nick came up. Our manager smoked a ball into the gap, bringing two runs in. Another wound up scoring on, you guessed it, a passed ball. 9-3, us.

You have to give tremendous credit to Alex, Jorge, and Joe, our three catchers. They are like brick walls back there. Having a good backstop was an enormous asset in this tournament, as you can tell by the amount of runs we scored on passed balls. Jorge caught every inning of both games on this day, as his brother did the day before. Sunday would be Joe’s day.

Edilson finished the job in the 9th, capping off a sparkling complete game. He allowed one earned run, struck out nine, and walked one. An absolute caballo. 9-3, final.

Our first two days and four games could not have been scripted any better. We went into Sunday playoffs having outscored our opponents 44 to 9. Our pitchers were untouchable. Our bats were unstoppable. We were playing good-enough defense. The Coral Gables A’s were looking good.

How would Day 3 turn out? The final recap article is coming soon!