East conquers West in Aflac All-American Baseball Classic

Sean Trent was assigned the No. 9 batting position by the East All-Stars coaches for the 2010 Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic.

The senior-to-be from Bishop Moore (Orlando, Fla.) is not used to batting last in the order. Yet, he claimed it didn’t bother him.

In fact, it was his two-run single to right field in the seventh inning that snapped a 3-3 tie and propelled the East to a 5-3 victory before 7,862 Sunday night at San Diego’s Petco Park.

"When you're playing around guys with talent like this, you know everybody can hit," Trent said. "Where they put you in the order doesn't mean much. You just take advantage of the chances you get."

With two outs and runners at second and third, Trent strolled to the plate and slapped a 1-2 pitch to right, driving in both runs.

"I just went up there with my normal approach and just kept it simple – see ball, hit ball," he said.

The big blast of the evening was delivered by East catcher Tyler Marlette of Hagerty (Oviedo, Fla.), who was awarded game MVP honors after driving a two-run homer some 370 feet in a ballpark not known for the long ball. And that was with a wooden bat.

Asked for his thoughts if he had made contact using a metal wand, Marlette offered, "It would have gone into the upper deck (a 390-400-foot shot). I hit it square. I knew the feel was right."

Finishing on top in most any all-star game is hardly a pinnacle in a player's career.

"Winning a game like this means East-vs.-West bragging rights," Marlette said. "It indicates who is the better side of the country."

Not to be overlooked was middle infielder and West leadoff hitter Phillip Evans of La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.). In five trips to the plate, Evans slapped a pair of singles, walked twice and scored a run.

Bringing the heat
About a half-dozen of the 16 pitchers to twirl in the Aflac affair consistently made deliveries above the 90 mph mark. One of the most impressive was the West’s Archie Bradley out of Broken Arrow (Okla.). The hard-throwing righthander (6-foot-4, 225), who was pounding the strike zone in the 94-95 mph range, likely will be taking football snaps at Oklahoma University by the 2011 season. However, baseball obviously will remain an option. During a two-inning stint against Aflac competition, Bradley struck out four of the six batters he faced. Pro baseball scouts are comparing him with San Diego Padres rookie sensation Mat Latos.

Florida flavor
Nine of the 19 players on the East All-Stars roster hailed from Florida high schools. The roots of one of those from the Sunshine State reach even farther. Winning pitcher Jose Fernandez, who dealt a 1-2-3 seventh inning, is an immigrant from Cuba where he was a member of that country’s youth national team team. The 18-year-old senior-to-be, who escaped his native land via a harrowing boating ordeal across the Gulf of Mexico to Cancun, Mexico in 2008, turned loose pitches that registered 95 and 96 mph on the radar gun. He led Alonso (Tampa, Fla.) to the 6A state championships a year ago.

Long Ball King
East shortstop Francisco Lindor, who clubbed only one home run last year as a junior for Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.), won the pregame Home Run Derby with four. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Lindor also hit four homers in the preliminary rounds at the University of San Diego. The West's Christian Lopes out of Edison (Huntington Beach, Calif.), finished second in the finals with a pair of homers.