After a rough skid, Plant City broke back into the win column while Durant extended their winning streak before this week’s big series.
After a loss to Alonso earlier in the month and a tough loss on senior night to East Bay last week, Plant City finished off their week with a 6-2 loss at the hands of a very good Sickles team on Thursday night, bringing their losing streak to three games.
After Sickles scored one run in each of the first two innings, Plant City battled back in the fourth to tie it with their first run coming by way of a solo home run from Jackson VanDerZee — his fifth of the season — and their second run coming when pinch runner Colin Pellicer went from second to home on a fielding error that followed a sacrifice bunt attempt from Zane Wright. Sickles responded quickly with four more runs of their own in the top of the fifth, pulling ahead 6-2 and holding on for the victory.
This week Plant City finally broke back into the win column on Monday with a 2-0 shutout win over a tough Lennard team that started the season on a 12-game win streak and entered the contest at 14-3. Despite just six hits in the contest, the Raiders were able to power through with RBI’s from senior Colin Shultz and sophomore Chase Mobley while the junior trio of Tanner Rollyson, Preston Rogers and Adan Longoria were able to keep the Longhorns off the board with just four hits allowed.
Durant ended their week with a 5-0 victory over Newsome last Thursday, sweeping the season series after a 5-2 win over the Wolves on March 31. Five different Cougars crossed the plate in the contest, but it was the pitching of their top two starters Blaine Rowland and Torin Byrnes — recently signing with the University of Tampa — that stole the show. Rowland allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out six over his four innings of work and Byrnes threw three nearly perfect innings, his lone baserunner coming via a hit by pitch, en route to the two-hit shutout of Newsome.
The Cougars then returned to action on Tuesday with a huge 12-1 win over Spoto in five innings. Sophomore Noah Morales led the charge offensively with two hits in his two at bats, totaling four RBIs and one run scored while hitting his first home run of the season. Byrnes, Oscar Fernandez and Nick April-Gath all added multi-hit performances as Durant racked up 17 hits on the night. Freshman Dylan Hotz, sophomore Pete Oderio and senior Grant Greenwell handled the pitching duties as they combined for five strikeouts and six hits allowed while giving up just one earned run.
After their first game was rescheduled due to weather, originally planned for earlier in the season, Durant and Plant City kicked off the first installment of their back-to-back series on Wednesday night with their second game following on Thursday night.
After a thrilling nine-inning win over Robinson last Tuesday, Strawberry Crest headed to Plant High School on Thursday for a rematch of their Saladino semifinal loss against the Panthers earlier in the year, coming away with a narrow 3-2 victory this time. Junior Zach Redner got the start for the Chargers, allowing two runs in a complete-game effort while striking out nine. He also pushed a run across via a sacrifice fly while Arjun Nimmala tacked on an RBI of his own in a 2-for-3 day as he’s started to find his rhythm offensively after missing the first half of the season with an injury, stretching his hitting streak to three games.
On Tuesday, the Chargers fell 4-3 as they hosted 14-6 Wharton. In the bottom of the first, Redner reached on a single before coming all the around to score on a deep drive down the right field line off the bat of Eli Vickers, giving the Chargers a 1-0 lead early. They tacked on two more in the second by way of an RBI triple from junior Alex Philpott, later being driven in on a ground ball from senior Eddie Cruz.
Wharton closed the gap in the top of the third as they put their first run on the board and followed up with three more runs in the top of the fourth, scoring four runs and holding on for the win despite managing just four hits on the evening.
The loss puts Crest at 14-7 as they prepare to face 7-12 Gaither on Thursday.
