The Durant baseball team fell short of winning the program’s first state championship May 18, losing to Lake Brantley (Altamonte Springs) 8-3 in the Class 8A state championship at jetBlue Park, in Fort Myers.
Lake Brantley out-hit the Cougars 12-7 in the game and built an early four-run lead that Durant couldn’t overcome.
Durant ends the season 25-6 overall, after winning the program’s first region championship and advancing to the state final four for the first time.
“You’re talking about a team that had four seniors, and they scrapped together, obviously, with a big horse behind them, but they got a good taste of getting this far,” Durant head coach Butch Valdes said of his club. “They got a taste of it and found out that if they work together and pull together, they can get far.”
Durant will lose seniors Jared Donini, Chaz Fowler, Ryan Sullivan and Tyler Danish, a University of Florida commit who had one of the best seasons of any player in the country. Danish pitched a complete-game shutout in the state semifinals against American High, striking out nine while allowing just one hit.
The ace finished his high school career with 148 strikeouts opposed to just 15 walks and had a 15-1 record with an astonishing 0.00 ERA. He also hit for a .411 average and had 27 RBI and nine home runs, including a homer in his final at-bat at home and one over the Green Monster at jetBlue Park in the state semifinals.
Fowler, a senior left-hander, received the loss on the mound for Durant in the title game, giving up five runs (three earned) on five hits in 2.1 innings pitched.
Junior Luke Heyer came in to relieve Fowler, throwing 3.2 innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits.
Durant’s plan was to have Fowler pitch the first four innings and give Danish the ball to close. The early deficit foiled that plan.
“We put Luke in, knowing that if we held close enough, he was going to hold on until TD could come in,” Valdes said of the change of strategy. “We had to supply the runs though, and we weren’t pumping them out like we should have been, but they were making some good plays, and you just have to tip your hat to them.”
Danish did come in to pitch in the seventh with Durant trailing 7-3. Lake Brantley scored a run on a sac fly to extend its lead to five. Danish inherited the runner from Heyer, so the Cougars’ ace ended the season with his 0.00 ERA in tact.
Danish is committed to the Gators, but his plans could change as the MLB draft approaches.
Durant will return a solid group, including Heyer and Paxton Sims, who went 6-for-7 in the state tournament. Sims had three hits in the championship game.
Donini was the only other Durant Cougar with more than one hit in the final game.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Comments after Durant’s state semifinal against American and final with Lake Brantley.
“This season was just a great building season to show that we don’t need 11 or 12 seniors out there to have success.”
— Durant head coach Butch Valdes
“I couldn’t ask for a better school to go to for the last four years. To be a part of a team that made history is something special. This team will go down in the record books as one of the best teams to ever play at Durant.”
— Senior Tyler Danish
“Couldn’t be more proud of my team. I’ll carry the memories I’ve made with Durant baseball with me for the rest of my life. I love y’all.”
— Senior Ryan Sullivan, via Twitter
“This experience was outstanding. To be a part of a team like this and to be able to accomplish what we did makes me so proud of this team.”
— Junior Luke Heyer
“It kind of hurts when people say we’re a one-man show, because we know that everybody plays a part,”
— Ryan Sullivan, in a press conference after the American win
“He’s the best I’ve ever seen or faced.”
— American High pitcher Ron Williams, on Tyler Danish
“When we got down 4-0, it felt like we were down 10-0.”
—American coach Ricky Gutierrez, after his team lost to Durant 6-0 in the state semifinals with ace Tyler Danish on the mound
“There’s not a complete district out there that we feel is comparable to the one we play.”
— Durant head coach Butch Valdes on the tough competition in Class 8A District 7
“That automatically became one of my most memorable home runs.”
— Tyler Danish, on hitting a two-run homer over the 37-foot Green Monster in the state semifinals at jetBlue Park, the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox.
“It’s hard to be the guy that everyone looks up to and the guy the other team wants to beat, but I think I did an amazing job of keeping focused and just playing the way I always play and play my way.”
— Tyler Danish on the pressures of being a standout.