By STEVE JACKSON
The Spoto Spartans, the Sumner Stingrays and the Riverview Sharks claimed opening day wins in the Saladino Baseball Tournament, Saturday, March 11. Lennard and East Bay both sustained losses in the premier mid-season high school diamond activity in Florida. The three-division Saladino tourney continues this week during high school spring break with multi-games in the tourney for all five South Shore baseball teams. Thirty Hillsborough County high school baseball teams are competing this year in the 42nd Saladino Baseball Tourney.
Each team in the 16-team Gold Division, including Lennard, plays a minimum of four Saladino games. The top two winners clash for the Gold Division title Thursday, March 16, at the University of Tampa. Four teams, including the Longhorns, opened the first three games at Lennard March 11, 13 and 14. Other Gold Division games are at Jefferson, Strawberry Crest and Jesuit. Gold Division semi-finals are Wednesday, March 15, at a site and time to be determined.
Lennard head coach Victor Martinez observes starting pitcher Jackson Mueller test his footing after taking a ball off his foot.
In the Silver Division, the Sumner High baseball diamond hosted opening round games March 11, 13 and 14. South Shore squads in this eight-team Silver Division are Sumner, East Bay and Riverview. All teams will play a fourth game Wednesday, March 15, with sites and times to be determined (TBD).
Spoto is the lone South Shore entry in the Saladino Bronze Division. Six teams played at Brandon High March 11, 13 and 14 with fourth game matchups on Wednesday, March 15, TBD.
With Head Coach Stephon Knight managing Spoto, the Spartans nipped Tampa Bay Tech Saturday 3-1 at Brandon behind the three RBIs of junior Cullen Cairns’ play to open the Saladino tourney. Spoto was set to play the second round on March 13 versus 0-5 Middleton, a team the Spartans demolished, earlier this season. Then, still at Brandon, the Spartans took on the Eagles March 14 prior to a March 15 game TBD.
Spoto came into this week with a 4-3 record after beating Freedom High last week, 3-2 pre-Saladino, behind clutch pitching of junior Peyton Nisy, senior Chase Wink and junior Mike McQueen. Both junior Abel Jiminez and Cairns ripped two hits with Cairns collecting a pair of RBIs and Jiminez also driving in a big run.
Longhorn junior Matthew Counts closes the glove on a Plant fly ball.
After its early-season unbeaten hot start, Lennard now limped into this week at 5-2. The Longhorns were smashed in a regular season game, 11-3, by Strawberry Crest last week. Coach Victor Martinez then threw Lennard’s ace pitcher, Jackson Mueller, in the opener of the Saladino last Saturday. Mueller had one disastrous inning in a complete game. Plant High jumped on Mueller for six runs in the top of the third, and that spelled a 7-4 loss for the Horns.
The Longhorns looked to get back on the winning track in the Saladino early this week versus tough opponents, 4-3 Tampa Catholic and 5-3 Alonso. Once the Saladino concludes, the Longhorns jump back into the regular season against 2-4 Palmetto High on March 21 at 7 p.m. at Ruskin.
Riverview won its Saturday Saladino game against East Bay 11-0. That put the Sharks, under Head Coach Jason Smith, at 2-6-1 for the campaign so far. Riverview has a pair of formidable foes in early week Saladino tourney action. First up is 4-2 Sefner Christian. Sumner is the next opponent the very next day.
Riverview continues to rely heavily on the defense and the offense of senior Farah Castillo, scorching the ball at an over .400 rate with a home run. Castillo is supported at the plate by junior Anthony Jacquez and freshman Justin Edwards, both of whom slapped two hits in the rout of East Bay. The Sharks also drew nine walks in addition to their nine hits in the rout of East Bay. Sharks senior hurler Victor Peinado limited EB to a sole hit, issued no walks and whiffed seven. Jacquez mopped up from the mound.
Riverview continues its regular season post-Saladino at Lutz against 4-2 Steinbrenner March 21 at 7 p.m.
Francis Fedor Photos
Lennard senior Joseph Rivera beats the throw to safely arrive headfirst into third base.
The East Bay Indians put one victory on their worksheet, an 11-1 demolition of Brandon prior to the Saladino tourney. Under Head Coach Rowland Ruiz, the Indians smashed nine hits, garnered nine walks and limited the Eagles to one hit last week. However, the 1-4 East Bay bats cooled off in the Saladino opener, falling 9-0 to rival Riverview. Next on the Saladino agenda for EB are 5-2 Sumner and 4-2 Seffner Christian early this week. The Jefferson Dragons come to Big Bend Road for a 7 p.m. clash March 21 after the Saladino action ends. The Indians are leaning on the offense of soph Rory Beauford and junior Andrew Gingrich, along with pitcher soph John Viane, in an attempt to climb to .500 ball. Spoto visits EB for a rival game March 23 at 7 p.m.
With veteran Head Coach Kennedy Duran at the helm, Sumner High is one of the hosts for the Silver Division of the Saladino. The 5-2 Stingrays were favored in two early-week games and should be in the Wednesday, March 15, Silver championship TBD. More coverage of Sumner High sports is provided elsewhere in every week’s ObserverNews.net print and digital newspaper.