FORT MYERS — A year ago after a devastating second-consecutive loss in the 3A state title game, South Walton junior Coleman Borthwick addressed TV cameras and reporters in the postgame interviews with a promise.
“We will be back and we will win it,” said the 6-foot-6, 255-pound face of the Seahawks.
He was right, South Walton avenging its championship loss to Miami Springs in a 6-2 state semifinal win before walking it off on a suicide squeeze by Hudson Quinn in a 6-5 victory over North Broward Prep for the program’s first-ever state title. At the center was Borthwick, who struck out 11 and allowed just a run for the win over Miami Springs and reached base five times in eight plate appearances in Fort Myers with an RBI and run scored.
Yet, the transformative run goes beyond that. After all, not even Borthwick could have foreseen the heater of a stretch that’d transpire first with Team USA in the summer and spill into a spring where scouts lined up by the dozen to witness the projected MLB first-round pick pitch his way to a 10-0 record, 0.21 ERA, .082 batting average against and 12.9 Ks per 7 innings while batting .460 with 9 homers, 34 RBIs, 30 runs and a 1.498 OPS.
Fittingly, just days after being named the MaxPreps Florida Baseball Player of the Year, it was announced Monday that Coleman Borthwick is the 2025-26 Gatorade Florida Baseball Player of the Year.
Soak that in for a second. Committed to Auburn, projected for the first round of the draft and the seven-figure paycheck that follows, state champ and Team MVP of the Under 18 Team USA baseball squad, cemented by his complete-game shutout in the gold medal win over host Japan in front of 18,000-plus fans to cap a tournament where he hit .300 and struck out 12 while allowing just three hits over two outings.
Now Borthwick awaits for the MLB draft, which takes place July 11–13 in Philadelphia. MLB has him ranked as its No. 35 prospect, while the latest ESPN mock draft had him going 34th to the Pirates.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Coleman Borthwick named Gatorade Florida Baseball Player of the Year
Reporting by Seth Stringer, Northwest Florida Daily News / Northwest Florida Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
