The Tribune

BAHAMIAN baseball standout Ashton Butler bypassed his spring break trip home this week to participate in a cross-state rivalry with several top high school baseball contenders in Tampa. The Tampa play started with Bolles (9-2) taking on Bishop McLaughlin (8-3) on BM home turf. Butler started at second base for the first time this season. He led the Bolle's offensive threat as he got on base three times in the game, scored two runs and had one RBI. His single in the fourth inning started the Bolle's onslaught en route to a 10-0 victory. Ashton also had two stolen bases. On the defensive side, he had one double play but two errors were charged to him. He chalked this up to this being his first time playing for the season. Bolles won the game 10-0, taking their impressive record to 10-2 on the season. Next up, Bolles will play Tampa Jesuit - the No.5 ranked high school baseball team in the nation. Tampa Jesuit just spent $2 million to upgrade their already impressive baseball facilities. Butler has had limited playing time but has been used frequently as a base runner. The Bolles Bulldogs baseball team has an impressive 7-1 record and is looking to make it back to the state championship game. According to Bolles coach Mike Boswell, Butler is one of the most talented athletes on the team. Boswell is hopeful that, as the season progresses and Ashton increases his knowledge of the game, he will get more playing time. The Florida high school's regular season encompasses approximately 30 games and then baseball players play another 80-plus games during the summer. This will be Butler's first summer playing summer league baseball and he expects to get even more looks from Division 1 baseball coaches and MLB scouts. North Florida has some of the top baseball prospects in the US. The Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, is one of the top 10 athletic schools in the entire US. At home, Butler was one of the Bahamas' top athletes. He led the St Andrew's Hurricanes to two consecutive junior boys' softball titles (2008 and 2009) and was the national under-15 long and triple jump champion prior to heading off to the US to further his high school education. As a freshman last year, Ashton played JV baseball for the 2009 and 2010 back-to-back Florida state baseball champions. In 2011, after they lost their coach, they fell to a 15-11 record. Since then, Butler said his goal was to make the varsity team which is stacked with talent. There are presently two players from the US U16 squad on the team, two Under Armour All America team members and one perfect game USA All-Star team member. This 2012 season, Ashton is expected to switch between shortstop and second base. Also a dual threat in track and field, the Bolles School sophomore set a new high school record in the triple jump with a personal best (PB) of 14.48M last month. Butler is one of the top-ranked triple jumpers in the state of Florida and has been getting a lot of attention from the top Division 1 universities in the North Florida area, including Florida State and University of Florida. This was Butler's second meet of the season and his coach is confident that he will jump even further and possibly win the state title.