MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week: Steinbrenner baseball

With a school named after the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, a former Tampa resident, one should probably expect success. Especially from its baseball team.

Coach John Crumbley and his Warriors have delivered, starting the 2014 season 15-4 after going 24-3 last season. The program started in 2010 and had records before that of 18-6, 19-5 and 17-7, all under Crumbley.

For their strong start and young tradition of success, Steinbrenner (Lutz) has been selected as the MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week, presented by the Florida National Guard.

Crumbley said the secret to the team's success is pretty simple.

"Coming in with experience from the previous school I was at, I was able to take those championship team skills and bring them to Steinbrenner," he said. "The main focus for me has been discipline and organization. They say great programs have talented kids and we have been blessed to have our talented kids buy into our plans."

It helps to have players like Kevin Merrell (.474 average, 24 runs, 27 hits, 19 stolen bases) and Alex Hanson (.448, 26 hits, 15 RBIs, 17 stolen bases). Both are Division I signees and Merrell is a four-year letterman.

Hanson is a former football player who has focused on baseball the last two seasons.

Crumbley says when you have athletes like Merrell and Hanson, you let them go.

"We have our go signals for green light and stay signals and both these guys had great junior seasons," he said. "They both have speed, agility and experience. We are taking the talent that these kids have and putting it into our game plan and right now it's working for us."

The Warriors, who opened the season with a 26-1 victory, have plenty of offensive firepower. The team is hitting .351 and led by senior Cole Gordon who is hitting .417 with 20 hits, 20 RBIs, three doubles and three homers. He's a three-year star who led the team in homers and RBIs last season and is headed to Mississippi State.

Other big hitters including Mijon Cummings (.327, 17 hits, 15 RBIs) and Chase Debonis (.439) and Brennan Garcia (17 hits, 16 RBIs).

The Warriors have stolen 59 bases (three per game) as a team.

"We are lucky to have four Division I signees on our team," Crumbley said. "As a baseball program, we are going to continue to utilize our players' abilities to help our team win games."

The Warriors also sport a nifty 1.92 team ERA, led by Garcia (6-2, 2.29 ERA) and Gideon Dunn (3-1, 1.12 ERA).

"We have been able to progress one step every year and last year, we won our first regional game," Crumbley said. "This year we want to win our district playoffs and then we will get ready to play solid regional play. Our goal is to always progress. Right now we are working hard to obtain those goals."

MaxPreps editorial assistant Kirstin Beal contributed to this report.

Do you know a team that deserves consideration for Florida Team of the Week? Email us with your nominations at FLteamoftheweek@maxpreps.com.