Sometimes, as the 80s hair rockers Cinderella once sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
That’s not the case with Durant baseball, though. It knew exactly what it had with star pitcher Tyler Danish. But, now that he and two other pitchers have graduated, the Cougars have had to adjust to playing without 2013’s strong senior core.
“We knew we were going to have to kind of change formats, but we still have some good pitching,” head coach Butch Valdes says. “They’re just young.”
Young — and not too exposed to the varsity level. While four of the Cougars’ listed pitchers played on the varsity squad last season, Danish and Chaz Fowler were on the mound 74 percent of the time. Add in Ryan Sullivan’s 16.1 innings pitched, the third-highest total on the 2013 team, and you’re looking at a figure of 81 percent.
So, one could say the pressure is on the young guns, three juniors and two seniors, to get out there and produce.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” Valdes says. “It’s their turn to step up and take control, and they’re doing a good job of it.”
The Cougars started the season with a four-game win streak, in which they gave up only three runs — all to Riverview in the opener.
The only setback the staff has faced so far was in their Feb. 28 matchup with Strawberry Crest, when Durant blew a 3-2 lead in the final inning by allowing three runs.
This also plays into another big change that happened this year: district reshuffling. Durant was previously a Class 8A school, but moved to Class 7A this year, joining the likes of Plant City, Strawberry Crest, Brandon and other unfamiliar foes. That, too, has factored into the Cougars’ approach.
“Everybody in this district is scrappy,” Valdes says. “It’s going to be tough — could be a four-way race.”
With that in mind, Valdes and his fellow coaches are trying this approach: “Don’t change.”
“It’s been the same philosophy that we’ve always been preaching, but they’re just getting better at it,” he says. “We’ve been fortunate to have a strong pitching staff throughout the years, and Danish was just a very bright spot in our history.”
Of course, it’s tough for any of these pitchers to replicate Danish’s 2013 season — none of them is a big league-caliber player who gets mobbed by MLB and college scouts on most days. So, obviously, something has to change to take some pressure off of their shoulders, and the Cougars all agree that that’s going to happen at the plate.
“We have a lot of potential — really good hitting that people don’t know about,” junior second baseman Cade Kelley says. “I mean, everyone knows our pitching isn’t near what we had last year, and that’s what they bank on. They’re like, ‘Oh, we can get them.’ But, we still swing the bats, and we’ve got some of the most high-scoring games so far.”
It’s true. Durant put up 40 runs in its first five games, while Strawberry Crest scored 33 through their first five, Plant City scored 22, and Brandon scored 16. Senior Tyler Long has been raking lately, batting .667 with five runs and three RBI, and fellow senior Garrett Wright sits at .500 with eight runs and six RBI. As a whole, the team is batting .328 — the next-closest team is Strawberry Crest, which is batting .288.
All of this certainly helps the pitching staff maintain its 1.81 ERA, which is largely due to the pitching of lefty Bryce Gainer. Valdes has called the junior, who appears to be taking over Danish’s workload, a “bright spot” for this season, and it’s not hard to see why. In 16 innings pitched, he’s fanned 17 batters and allowed just five earned runs.
Durant is only one game out of first place in the district, by virtue of having played fewer games than half of the other teams, but that loss to the Chargers (currently behind the Cougars in the standings) complicates things somewhat. The Cougars may not be underdogs this season, but they’re suddenly not the unanimous favorite to win anymore. Still, this is just fuel for the fire — something that motivates the pitchers, the batters, everybody.
“We’re going to surprise some people this year,” Kelley says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
“We definitely still hear from Tyler,” Butch Valdes says. “He comes over and sees us in the offseason, comes out and hangs out with us. He comes over and talks to the pitchers sometimes. Not too much — he’s still learning, himself — but any time the kids ask him something, he’s happy to jump in and offer advice.
“Carmine Giardina (of the Anaheim Angels) helps out, sometimes,” Valdes says. “Ryan Raburn also comes down and has his offseason workouts with us. We’ve been very fortunate to have those guys around us.”