East Orlando Sun Newspaper, by Alicia Rose DelGallo, May 30, 2012 8:33 p.m

Branden Castro has been playing baseball since he was 4-years-old. He only made one error as shortstop this season. Four-year-old Branden Castro was never caught without a baseball and bat in his hands.

 

From the time he started playing t-ball, his father, Vincent, could tell the boy was going to be a good player.

“Just by the way he was swinging the bat, and also his body language,” Vincent said.

 

Now, 14 years later, Castro is a force on the field and behind the plate. He is the Most Valuable Player on Timber Creek High School’s baseball team, and committed to play at Alabama State University in the fall. However, Castro didn’t rely on the talent of that four-year-old boy. He made sure he worked harder than the next kid to get what he wanted.

 

“I guess because I knew that I could make a future out of it, and I always had the support of my parents and my brother,” Castro said. “It was just something I always wanted since I was a little kid.”

 

“He was always practicing,” Vincent said. “We have a batting cage in our back yard and he was always in the batting cage working out. I used to make sure that he knew how important it was to work hard. Talent can only take you so far, but your work ethic is what is really important.”

 

Castro took that lesson from his father with him when he became a Timber Creek Wolf. The shortstop ended his four- year varsity career this season as MVP and captain, leading the wolves in batting average (.475), RBIs (19), homeruns (3) and defensively, making only one error the entire season.

 

“Hitting for hours after practice with our hitting coach…I think that’s what made me the hitter I am,” Castro said. “We would just hit and hit and hit. Practice would end about 4:30, and I would get out around 6:30 or 7:00 with him.”

 

Although his batting average is impressive, Timber Creek head coach Scott Grove thinks that his fielding statistic is what really stands out.

 

“At shortstop he didn’t make an error,” Grove said. “I think he had one error the whole season, which is pretty incredible with all the chances that he had.”

 

Castro may have been successful defensively because fielding is his favorite thing about the sport. “I like having the control when the ball is hit to me to get that last out.”

 

“We play like a family,” Castro said. “We’re a family we’re not really a team.”

 

Work ethic like Castro’s is the reason why the Timber Creek baseball program has been so successful. Close to 90 percent of the program’s athletes have gone on to play professional or college baseball, and the teams have won 20 games or more almost every year the school has been open. They have made it to the state playoffs six of those years, won the district championship the last two years, and made it to the final four in the state tournament this year as well as in 2010.

 

“We really feel that nobody works as much as we do,” Grove said. “We have a great summer program with a camp that we do, and we’re just going to continue to work as hard as we can. And ya know, I think we’ll win one, one day.”

 

Grove has been coaching baseball at Timber Creek since the school opened 11 years ago. He spent seven years playing professional baseball after being drafted by the Atlanta Braves out of high school, and later traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Wolves (21-7) are used to winning, but May 19 they had to handle a disappointing loss. The team succumbed to Port Orange Spruce Creek (29-5) in the Class 8A state semifinal. Spruce Creek went on to win the state championship.

 

Losing a semifinal game may seem like a huge disappointment, but the path the Wolves took to the final four was filled with victories.

 

“Going to the final four is incredible,” Grove said. “Especially when it’s a single elimination like Florida has.”

 

Not only did they end the regular season with 21 wins, but to advance to the semifinal they took down Tampa Wharton, which was ranked as high as fifth nationally by MaxPreps, a CBSSports.com website focused on high school sports, and first in Class 8A.

 

“We’re a young team, but just the hard work, the ethic that we have as a team is second to none this year,” said senior pitcher Zachary Barrett.

 

Barrett, who committed to Bethune-Cookman in the fall, transferred to Timber Creek from Spruce Creek, and had a unique perspective having once played for the team that ended the Wolves’ season “We’re out there for hours upon hours and just getting stuff done and making sure we’re positioning ourselves in the best way we can to win games day in and day out,” Barrett said.

 

Beyond hard work, Castro said that a special bond between the players is what gave the Wolves an advantage over other teams.

 

“We play like a family,” Castro said. “We’re a family; we’re not really a team. Everything we do we’re always together…we talk to each other like we’re brothers, not really like friends or teammates.”

 

Castro knows a lot about family bonds since he shares a special connection with his older brother Vinny. Vinny was also a four-year varsity player for Timber Creek and went on to play at the collegiate level for Bethune-Cookman.

 

Castro was looking forward to following his brother to Bethune-Cookman on a baseball scholarship, but when the head coach Mervyl Melendez accepted a position at ASU, he decided to follow his brother’s coach.

 

He hopes to be drafted by the MLB his junior year, but to back up that dream he will head to Alabama as an occupational therapy major.

 

“I’m excited – a little nervous – feels a little weird to be leaving Timber Creek, but I’m ready,” Castro revealed. “It feels good to know that I worked hard and I got what I wanted.”

 

http://www.eosun.com/news/2012/may/30/timber-creeks-branden-castros-best-season/