After opening the season with an 8-0 victory over Middleton, featuring a no-hit performance from starting pitcher Adan Longoria, Plant City faced much tougher tests as they hosted Newsome and the defending 6A State Champions in Bloomingdale over their next two contests.
Sophomore Chase Mobley — committed to Florida State — got the start for the Raiders against Newsome last Thursday, working his way through the first with relative ease. In the bottom half of the frame, Plant City’s offense got rolling early. Senior Colin Shultz made his way into scoring position with a one-out double, moving to third as Jackson VanDerZee reached safely on a dropped third strike. A base hit from Longoria brought Shultz around to score and VanDerZee crossed the plate later in the inning on a throwing error, giving Plant City a 2-0 lead after the first.
The Raiders added on in the second. After a base hit from junior Deven Gonzalez, Shultz stepped up with two outs and crushed a home run to left, his second home run in as many games, to give the Raiders a 4-0 lead. VanDerZee reached safely again, this time with a single to left, Longoria drew a walk and Mobley helped out his own cause with a single to left, scoring VanDerZee. Through two innings, the Raiders built a 5-0 lead over a strong Newsome team.
“We have a lot of talent on this team and the bats are something that we’ve been working on for the last three weeks…” Plant City head coach Mike Fryrear said. “Our hitters were ready, they attacked fastballs when they were in good counts and they didn’t miss much.”
Newsome scored their only run of the night in the top of the third. With runners on first and third and two outs, a throwing error allowed the unearned run to cross the plate and cut the Plant City lead to 5-1, but that would be it for the Wolves.
In the bottom of the fourth, Shultz reached base for the third time in the evening as he legged out a slow roller that didn’t leave the infield and VanDerZee put a couple more runs on the board with one swing as he added a home run of his own. Longoria would get to second on a double later in the frame and Preston Rogers would bring him home with a single to right, extending their lead to 8-1.
Rogers would enter the game out of the bullpen in the fifth for Plant City as Mobley’s night was done after four innings, surrendering just two hits, two walks and one unearned run while striking out seven. And it would be a nearly perfect outing for Rogers as he would close the door with seven strikeouts of his own over the final three innings, surrendering just one hit and one walk.
While Plant City’s offense erupted for 16 runs over the team’s first two games, the pitching was even stronger as Longoria, Mobley and Rogers combined to allow just three hits, four walks and zero earned runs over 14 innings of work.
“When you can bring a guy out of the pen that throws 86 to 89, and he’s a competitor, he’s like the mad dog closer coming in,” Fryrear said about Rogers. “All three of them are battling for a starting position. They all want to start and it doesn’t matter who we start, he’s coming in or Chase is coming in or Adan is coming in… They compete with each other on a daily basis. They all want to be the man, but they know that all three of them are. Plus, [Tanner] Rollyson hasn’t even gotten into a game yet and he’s a lefty that’s throwing mid-80’s too. So it’s exciting going forward and if our bats can do that and we can play defense, we’re going to be a very dangerous team.”
Then on Tuesday, Plant City hosted the Bloomingdale Bulls.
With Longoria back on the mound to start for the Raiders, Bloomingdale was able to take advantage of a few Plant City errors in the top of the first to push three unearned runs across and take a 3-0 lead.
The game then remained scoreless until the third, when Bloomingdale led off the inning with a double before moving the runner over to third with a fly ball to right and home with a sac fly to center. The run that would give the Bulls a 4-0 lead and mark the first earned run scored off of Plant City’s pitching staff this season.
But Plant City finally got on the board in the bottom half of the inning, scoring two to cut the Bulls’ lead in half. After a leadoff walk from senior Anthony Grasso, a deep ball to left from Shultz fell safely at the base of the wall, skipping off of the outstretched glove of a Bloomingdale outfielder to put runners on second and third with no outs. A single from VanDerZee scored Grasso and while Longoria would ground into a 4-6-3 double play in the next at bat, it would be enough to score Shultz.
In the bottom of the sixth, Plant City threatened once more. After back-to-back base hits from Anthony Palestrini and Mobley, Bloomingdale’s defense made a spectacular defensive play to thwart the ensuing sacrifice bunt attempt to nab the leadoff runner at third and keep runners on first and second with one out. A walk from Landen Robert then loaded the bases.
A strikeout left the Bulls just one out away from escaping the jam, but after conceding three unearned runs in the first, luck swung the other way for Plant City as a routine ground ball from Grasso was thrown too high for the outstretched glove of Bloomingdale’s first basemen, clearing the bases and giving the Raiders a 5-4 lead that they would keep.
After 5 innings from Longoria — allowing three hits, one earned run and two walks while striking out seven — Rogers took the mound out of the pen again and was able to hold Bloomingdale scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings to close out the game and pick up the win.
The two big victories moved Plant City to 3-0 on the year. They will return to action on Thursday night as they head west to face 0-3 Tampa Bay Tech.
Around town, Durant moved to 3-0 as well with a 9-3 win over Sumner last Thursday and a 7-5 win over Brandon on Monday. The Cougars will head to Freedom on Thursday to face the 3-0 Patriots.
Strawberry Crest sits at 3-1, with a 9-3 win over Northeast, a 10-2 win over Armwood and a 4-0 loss to Jesuit since their opening day win over Osceola. The Chargers will return home on Thursday as they host 0-2 Chamberlain.