Lancers Confident Heading To State

TAMPA - Cambridge Christian's four seniors - Michael Miller, Will Bakos, Taylor Cabral and Erik Shears - knew they would reach this point.

Sure, before the season starts, every baseball team says the goal is to make it to the state tournament. But these four knew in their hearts this was the place they'd be at the end of the season.

"I wasn't taking anything less," Miller said.

The four seniors are a huge reason why the Lancers (25-2) will play a Class 1A state semifinal today against Deltona Trinity Christian at Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium. All four are starters and each is a major contributor.

Miller, the ace pitcher and today's starter, has a 0.98 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 71 innings. Shears, the catcher, is hitting .469 with 25 RBIs. Cabral, the right fielder, is hitting .439 with a team-best 19 stolen bases. And Bakos, the center fielder, is hitting .342 with seven doubles and 30 runs scored.

More importantly, though, is these four are the leaders of the Cambridge Christian squad, and they each manage to fill that role in a different way.

"Mike is the quiet leader. He goes out there and gets it done by example. Just a hard worker who expects 150 percent out of everyone," Lancers coach Rick Shears said. "Taylor, he's like our goofball. He keeps everybody loose, always joking around. He wet my pants down one day, everybody was laughing. He just had that little squirt bottle.

"Erik is like the vocal leader, and he gets that from playing football. And Bakos is a very smart one, one of the most popular students in the school. So when he talks, people listen. And he's our spiritual leader, too, no ifs, ands, buts about that."

But while they may be different, the combination gives the Lancers exactly what they need.

"Everyone brings their own special self to the table, but that's what makes us all likable," Cabral said. "Things click a lot easier because of that."

"We definitely feed off each other a lot," Erik Shears said. "All four of us work together to keep this team rolling."

The Lancers have essentially rolled all season. The opened with eight consecutive wins to start the season. After suffering their first loss, they reeled off 11 consecutive victories. That streak came to a close with a regular-season ending loss to Northside Christian in the Bay Conference championship game, but they've won all six playoff games since, including a two-game sweep of Bradenton Christian in the best-of-three region final series.

The only thing left for the Lancers' seniors is to try and put the finishing touches on a magical run, a run they know, one way of the other, will end this week at Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium.

"It's obvious that's going to be in our heads, that this is probably going to be our last couple of games in organized baseball," Bakos said.

"It's great, though," Miller said. "A lot of seniors don't ever get this far, get a chance to end their careers in the final four. It's been a great run."

It can get better. The four seniors would like to become Hillsborough County's first state baseball champion since 2001. The first step toward making that happen is today.

"We've just got to take it one game at a time," Bakos said, "and if we end up on top and win states, well, that's just the best thing that can happen."