The start of the 2021 Minor League Baseball season sees two former Bethune-Cookman stars reuniting on one team with the chance of facing off against another former Wildcat with a fourth trying to make it back to the “show.”
Demetrius Sims and Anthony Maldonado, two key contributors to the Wildcats’ 2017 run to the Gainesville Regional final against eventual champion Florida, are teammates in Pensacola with the Miami Marlins’ AA South affiliate, the Blue Wahoos. It was Maldonado’s four innings of no-hit relief that lifted B-CU to a 6-2 victory over the Gators to force a final game.
Also in AA South is Michael Cruz with the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Madison, Ala.) in the Los Angeles Angels’ organization.
Montana DuRapau, who saw time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, is now with the Oakland Athletics.
Sims has been considered one of the Marlins brightest prospects, batting .254 with the Class A Jupiter Hammerheads back in 2019. He saw time with the parent club during 2021 spring training, appearing in six games.
Maldonado, the 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year, had a promising rookie ball season in 2019. He recently pitched for Puerto Rico in the 2020 Caribbean Series.
Cruz played for B-CU in 2016 before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the seventh round. He joined the Angeles’ organization in 2019, seeing time with the rookie league team and Inland Empire.
DuRapau appeared in 14 games for the Pirates in 2019, registering two saves. He joined the A’s this year and worked three spring training games with the parent team. He’s currently in extended spring training recuperating from an injury and will then be assigned to either AAA Las Vegas or AA Midland (Tex.). The Deltona product and 2014 MEAC pitcher of the year was part of the 2014 team that beat Columbia in the Coral Gables Regional for the Wildcats’ first post-season win since 2002.
Courtesy of Bethune-Cookman University Athletic Department