By Gary Curreri

Deerfield Beach’s Janelle Calvet could be considered a Swiss army knife for the Somerset Keys High School baseball team. The 14-year-old freshman, who plays in the Deerfield Beach Little League Senior League team, recently completed her first year on the high school program as one of their bright spots. She played shortstop, catcher and even pitched some games to help the Lions finish 4-5 in their inaugural season.

“It was fun,” Calvet said. “I was very accepted (by the boys). Everybody treated me the same and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing.”

She said there wasn’t much of an adjustment because she played with players that also play Little League with her. There were a couple of girls that we played against.

“It was everything I expected and I am definitely going to do it again,” added Calvet, who also plays for the GTB (Girls Travel Baseball) program that plays in tournaments throughout the country. Their last event was an International Tournament in West Palm Beach last November.

Two years ago, she was among a group of girls from South Florida who were flown out to California to compete in the inaugural ‘Trailblazer Series,’ a first-of-its-kind girls baseball tournament.

The event at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton, CA took place in conjunction with Jackie Robinson Day. It attracted a total of approximately 100 girls, ages 16 and under, representing 20 states across the country as well as Washington D.C. and Canada.

Calvet still has aspirations of playing Major League Baseball. In March, she was a part of MLB Grit, an inaugural high school invitational event designed specifically for 60 girls who play baseball.

It was held in Dallas, Texas. Calvert said she was able to meet members of the United States Women’s National Baseball Team and some professional players.”

“I absolutely want to play in the MLB,” she said. “It is going to take a lot of hard work.”

Calvet, who is the lone girl playing in the Senior Division of the Deerfield Beach Little League, said the ‘A League of Their Own’ movie inspired her to play baseball. When she went to California, two of the original members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1949-51) were in attendance and Calvet got to meet them.

“The most memorable thing going out there was meeting Maybelle Blair and Shirley Burkovich because it all started with them,” said Calvet following her trip at the time.

“I had her pitching and playing shortstop for us,” said Somerset Keys baseball coach Joe Silvia. “She was a force to be reckoned with. I’ll be honest. I had her batting second and she would get on (base), steal second and third and score.”

“She was one of my heavy hitters,” he added. “It’s great having her on the team. It’s different having a girl on the team. You worry about her not hurting her arm. We do long toss, quick hands, and all of these drills.”

Calvet finished the season with a batting average of .444 and Silvia said she averaged at least two walks per game this season. She had 10 RBIs to go along with her 8 runs scored. She pitched, played shortstop and also caught the last few games of the season. Every practice, he would talk to her.

“I always went up to her and said, ‘how’s the arm? Are you good?’” Silvia said. “I pitched her in some of our games. She is the real deal. We started to practice, and she was running with the guys…taking batting practice and throwing and I was like, ‘ok, what’s going on here?’” If I had nine of her, we’d be undefeated.”

By Gary Curreri

The Deerfield Little League Junior Division Mets squad finished runner-up in the state tournament in Tallahassee.

The local squad opened with a 7-0 loss against the South Beaches and needed to win both games of a doubleheader to reach the title game.

“My pre-game pep talk was focused, not on the failures of our last game, but on reminding the team how we got here, how well we played all season, how we crushed most of our opponents, and how much fun we had along the way,” said Deerfield Beach manager Jason Siracusa, who is also the president of the Deerfield Beach Little League. “Once I started seeing the smiles slowly appearing on their faces, I knew we were going to have a good day.”

Deerfield Beach responded following a five-hour rain delay with a 2-0 win over the defending state champion South Fort Myers team behind RBIs from Sanders Chartier and Keanu Siracusa and a 12-8 victory over South Lakes to advance to the title game.

“We opened up a lead against South Lakes and although our pitchers began to struggle and gave up the lead we didn’t panic because we knew we had the momentum,” Siracusa said. “We were hitting really well so my confidence in our team was high. We took the lead back for good and after 13 hours of warm up, play, rain delays and more play this group of kids left the field tired, wet and muddy with a pair of wins and a trip to the championship game.”

Chartier had 2 hits and 3 RBIs, and Thomas had 2 hits and 2 RBIs, while Brock Buerosse had 2 RBIs. Lorenzo Feliciano, Keanu Siracusa, Dawson Lallance, Maxwell Thomson and Janelle Calvet each had an RBI as well. Gio Caffro, Lallance, Thomson, Calvet, and Kyle Adams each were outstanding on the mound for the Mets during the tournament.

Deerfield Beach then ran into juggernaut Inverness, who took apart the local team in an 18-0 win. It was the fourth straight double-digit win by Inverness in the tournament. In fact, Inverness won all three games in their pool and the championship without giving up a single run.

The lone bright spot for the Mets in the title game was a single by Thomas in the second inning.

“Unfortunately, it seems that, for the championship game, these kids were simply worn out,” Siracusa added. “We struggled in the field and at the plate and just couldn’t catch up to Inverness who had a very impressive team.”

Siracusa also cited the performance of Feliciano, who was taken to the emergency room Friday morning due to complications from his diabetes and placed in intensive care before being released Saturday.

“Although we could see he was struggling, he played both games of the doubleheader, had a great night at the plate and in the outfield and even pitched in the championship game Sunday,” Siracusa said. “All heart, he looked tired and worn out, but there was no way he was sitting this out. He’s a warrior.”

Former Ely great— Moss passes away

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that former star Blanche Ely running back Tyrone Moss died from heart failure last week.

Moss, who also starred at the University of Miami, died at the age of 33. The report from the medical examiner said Moss had hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity, and was admitted July 23 to Memorial Hospital West for a procedure for his heart.

Moss also had congestive heart failure and while he was at the Pembroke Pines Hospital, a cardiac catheter was inserted on July 25. He was given a LifeVest, an external defibrillator that can detect irregular heartbeats and provide a shock to the patient.

The report said as Moss was leaving the hospital and waiting for his ride the night of July 26, he passed out. He was brought into the emergency room where he had a “cardiac event” and hospital staff was unable to revive him.

The 2003 Blanche Ely graduate rushed for a Broward County record 7,105 yards during his high school career and led the Tigers to a state title in his junior year.

Moss went on to star for the Hurricanes in college from 2003-2006, where he had seven 100-yard games, putting him 10th on the team’s all-time list.

By Gary Curreri

Host Deerfield Beach rallied from an early 5-0 deficit to pull out a 10-9 victory over Ft. Lauderdale and capture the District 10 Little League Junior Division Championship last week.

The Deerfield Beach Mets started their comeback with two runs in the bottom of the third and added four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead as Lorenzo Feliciano, Brock Buerosse, and Janelle Calvet all contributed in the big inning with RBIs.

After Deerfield added another run in the bottom of the fifth, Ft. Lauderdale rallied to take a 9-7 lead in the top of the six with four runs. Undaunted, the Mets pulled ahead for good, scoring three runs of their own and Feliciano broke the 9-9 deadlock with a fielder’s choice that scored Maxwell Thompson from third with what proved to be the winning run.

“It’s my first championship and it is really cool,” said Deerfield Beach Little League Junior Division manager Jason Siracusa, who also took over this year as the league president. This is his third year as an All-Star manager.

“It was like a six day a week, seven day a week ordeal between coaching a team, running the league, and also coaching T-Ball, I was all over the place.”

“In the end, it was worth it,” Siracusa said. “We made a lot of changes to the league and the league is shaping up and ending the year with a championship is pretty special.”

Calvet, who went 3 for 4 at the plate and threw out a runner stealing second to get the first out in the top of the seventh (her cousin is Colin Calvet), plays on an all-girls travel baseball team in addition to the All-Stars. Buerosse had two hits and a walk for Deerfield Beach.

Keanu Siracusa went 4-1/3 innings and allowed five runs – just two earned – on two hits while striking out seven for the Mets. Gio Caffro and Neile Thomas came on in relief and closed the door on the Indians to win the championship.

Manager Siracusa said the Junior Division tournament featured teams from Deerfield Beach, Parkland, Coral Springs and Ft. Lauderdale. Deerfield Beach had 12 players on its roster but played the final with just nine players due to conflicts.

Deerfield Beach opened district play with a 1-0, extra-inning win over Ft. Lauderdale and then cruised past Coral Springs American, 12-2, before falling 7-4 to Ft. Lauderdale to set up the winner take all matchup last Friday night.

“We had better depth in pitching,” Siracusa said. “It was really an across the board team effort.”

“ We had a team of players that have played together for several years and they all back each other up,” Siracusa added. “They have a want-to-win mentality. We dominated the league this year going 13-1 with the only loss to Ft. Lauderdale 13-1. We outscored our opponents, 179-24. Our pitching super dominated everyone. Obviously, it can’t get any better than this. From here on, the rest is icing on the cake.”

Deerfield Beach will next play in the Sectional competition on July 20 in Tallahassee.