With six college signees, expectations remain high for Santa Fe Catholic baseball in 2025

LAKELAND — Six Santa Fe Catholic seniors have signed to play college baseball, including five last week, which is believed to be the most in one class at Santa Fe. That could put high expectations on the team, but as preseason games begin this week, expectations were already high for the Crimson Hawks.

The five players who signed last week were DJ Flores (Southeastern), Michael Welling (Daytona State), Angel Andujar (Montreat), Hudson Link (Montreat) and Marvin Montenegro (Polk State). They join Easton Beach, who signed with South Florida last fall.

A likely seventh player who would have signed, Gavin Stedman, has transferred to Mulberry, but even without Stedman, Santa Fe Catholic has high goals after coming off a 22-6 season.

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Santa Fe Catholic senior DJ Flores signs with Southeastern.

“We put some expectations on ourselves after last season,” Santa Fe Catholic coach David Saliba said. “We’re defending district champ, we lost in the (regional semifinals) late by a run, and they were all juniors. So we’re hoping that this year that we’ve learned a few things, got a little better, a little older and everything. This is a good group of kids. They’ve been here since they were freshmen, all of them and growing up, and they work hard and they play together. They’re a pleasure to coach, so it’s a little drawback to some of the old days.”

All six players were big contributors last season. Flores batted .469 with three home runs and 27 RBI; Welling batted .364 with 17 RBI; Andujar batted .342 with 27 RBI; Link batted .267; Montenegro batted .468 with 14 extra-base hits and 27 RBI; and Beach batted .495 with 12 extra-base hits.

“A few of them, you knew right away (about college potential),” Saliba said. “A couple of them have worked real hard. I thought that they might get into something, and they did turn themselves. Hudson has come a long ways, but he was a taller (player), a little gangly. The bigger kids take a little longer to get all that together, but he’s come a long ways. Beach and Marvin have been outstanding since they walked on. They started as freshmen, so they’ve been outstanding since they walked on campus. DJ’s done a good job, and we’re still fairly young. This is a good group. They came in with some talent. They worked hard. They got bigger, stronger and developed into pretty good ball players.”

The lineup will remain deep, but Saliba will be rebuilding his pitching staff. Stedman and Jacob Knisley, who graduated, combined to go 16-3 with an ERA around 1.50.

“We lose depth on pitching, but we have Jameson McGuire, who’s a junior and as good as anyone in the county,” Saliba said. “He and Welling will anchor the pitching. We lose Stedman, but Welling had some arm trouble last year so didn’t pitch, so we get him back this year. So hopefully, that will be a trade-off, and we’ve got some young kids that are coming ready to go. Beach can pitch. We haven’t had to use him that much, but he can pitch. It’s just, he’s the best shortstop in the area.”

The regular season begins next week (Feb. 10), which is a week earlier because of the change in the postseason where regional games are best two out of three.

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