Sports Editor

Four reasons why Gateway High repeated as the Orange Belt Conference baseball champion and earned the No. 1 seed at the 7A-5 district tournament have signed grants to colleges in Florida, Alabama, Illinois and Rhode Island.

“They’re the winningest class in school history … until next year,” Coach Rob Hammond said. “We’re proud of them and I know they are going to do well.”

Lio Morales (Kaskakia Junior College), Miguel Beltre (Indian River State College), Randall Toribio (Lawson State Community College) and James Griffin (Johnson and Wales University) all celebrated their college grants at the Gateway High cafeteria last week.

Morales, an outfielder, plans to study criminal justice at Kaskakia, located in Centralia, Ill. The team is coached by Mitch Koester.

Beltre said he will study business administration at Indian River, located in Fort Pierce and coached by Mitch Markham.

Toribio will join Coach Blake Lewis at Lawson Community College in Birmingham, Ala., and will play the middle infield. He will study business.

Griffin, a pitcher, plans to become a chef and selected Johnson and Wales in Providence, R.I. to further his education.

“I got interested in cooking when I was 15 or 16,” he said.

Griffin will spend 10 days in Italy this summer on a school-sponsored trip before he reports to Johnson and Wales late this summer to play for Coach John LaRose. The Wildcats are members of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

The Panthers seniors led Gateway to consecutive Orange Belt Conference championships and helped the Panthers to an 18-9 record last season.

Gateway lost in the district semifinals to OHS, a team the Panthers had twice beaten during the regular season.