Deak homers, Altman deals as Gaither blanks Sickles

The Gaither dugout leaps in celebration with teammate Ryan Deak (#2) after the junior’s two-run home run solidified the Cowboys lead against Sickles. 

By Mike Camunas, Creative Director

CITRUS PARK — Ryan Deak didn’t just talk about hitting.

He went ahead and had the biggest hit Gaither was desperately searching for.

The junior shortstop captain led by example, going 2-for-5 including a two-run homer in the Cowboys 7-0 downing of nearby rival Sickles that also saw senior starting ace Mathew Altman pitch six shutout innings.

“Yeah,” Deak said with a chuckle, “those are the bats we were looking for — the hits. Much better. Looked a lot better with deeper counts.

“(Getting the homer) felt really good,” he added. “I was looking fastball, but he threw two curveballs and then threw a third one so I took a chance on it.”

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Gaither (14-3), the 813Preps’ No. 5-ranked team, scored early and never looked back, in its first game following its exit from the Saladino Tournament semifinals last week at the hands of its back-to-back champion, Bloomingdale.

Gaither’s Ivan Vasquez comes in to score the game’s first run.

Senior outfielder and captain Albert Antinori drove in the first run, as Ivan Vasquez scored in the first inning. In the third, Antinori hit a sac fly to score Vasquez again, following S.J. Branham driving home Deak. Yenier Chirinos would hit a triple in the fourth to score Will Wade, then Deak would smack his homer in the sixth and the Cowboys added its final run in the seventh on a throwing misplay by the Gryphons (11-6).

“A much better approach,” said Gaither coach Nelson North, who has been preaching most of the season that the team was lacking in timely hitting to back up its pitching and defense. “(Sickles) is a scrappy team, and I thought their starting pitcher had really good command, and now I’m really pleased that we could do that against a guy like him.

“The guys have been working hard in the cage and really worked counts tonight and, so a much better approach.”

Sickles senior lefty Jake Taylor

Sickles senior southpaw Jake Taylor was on the bump for the Gryphons and would last five innings, but give up four runs on eight hits, as well as three walks and strike out six. He would give way to reliever Zack Dial, who would get two outs before giving up the homer to Deak.

“You want to build on this, and let (our batters) keep the same approach,” North said. “Now that they’ve seen they can do it, that they’ve done it, they know they can (get hits). We had some really good at bats and we had some longer at bats, and you know, I just liked that, I liked all of that.”

Gaither senior and FAMU signee Mathew Altman earned his eighth win of the year.

Altman was glad to get an early lead and never give any leeway on it. As the senior improved to 8-0 with a 0.33 ERA (plus 49 K), he knew his hitters, and defense, were behind him the whole time.

“You go out there,” he said, “and it felt good to go out there and see you have a 3-0 lead and, then I go, ‘All right, let me do my job and shut them down,’ and thank God that’s what happened.

“It’s always nice to have a lead.”

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Sickles sophomore Lee Melamut (who was 1-for-3 with a double) throws to first.

Altman’s approach was dubbed aggressive by North, even if it didn’t result in many strikeouts (2), but also just two walks. North felt Altman was still getting Sickles’ hitters to whiff, but did get plenty of hard-hit balls that were fielded by Gaither’s stout defense.

After throwing 80 pitchers (46 for strikes), Altman would give way to Adam Smolka, who closed out the seventh for the victory.

“Matt is always our guy,” Deak said. “He’s always consistent, he does his job amazingly and he gets (me) ground balls, which I love.”

Gaither’s Ryan Deak steals second base and would eventually score in the third inning.

Moving forward, the Cowboys are looking to keep the bats aggressively swinging and improving on the numbers at the plate. As a team, Gaither is batting just .273 with 109 hits, with Deak leading the way with 19 and a .396 average.

But they’ll take the consistent hits, especially if they’re timely and put more runs on the scoreboard.

“That was nice to see (a crooked number on the scoreboard),” Deak said. “We’ve been struggling, obviously. I mean, but hopefully we can build momentum on a game like this and finish off the season and keep it going through the playoffs just like this.”

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#5 Gaither 7
#9 Sickles 0

G 102|102|1 – |7|11|1
S 000|000|0 – |0|5|1
W – Altman (8-0); L – Taylor (1-2)
2B – Wade (G); Melamut (S); 3B – Chirinos (G); HR – Deak (G). Records – G (14-3); S (11-6).

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Cowboys senior SJ Branham takes a lead off third base.

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Gryphons senior LHP Jake Taylor

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Gaither head coach Nelson North

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Cowboys leadoff batter Martin Galo

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Ryan Deak scores his first run of the game.

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Gaither senior RHP Mathew Altman

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Coach Nelson North visits the mound to talk to Gaither’s infield and starting pitcher Matt Altman.

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Sickles skipper Eric Luksis walks out to the mound.

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Gryphons reliever Zack Dial

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Sickles RHP Peter Tsikouris

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Sickles junior reliever Micah Flores

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Gaither sophomore Will Wade went 1-for-3 with a double and run scored in the win.

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