By STEVE JACKSON
South Shore high school baseball teams picked up a couple more victories last week than the previous week. However, the five diamond squads remain languishing below the .500 mark overall. Last week the overall mark was four wins and eight losses, compared to a 2-11 worksheet the last week in March. Only Sumner High at 10-7 and Lennard High at 9-7 have winning records so far for this season. Spoto High is cruising along at 8-8, having split two games last week. The Riverview High Sharks are struggling with a four-game losing streak and have slid down to a 6-10 worksheet. East Bay High was blanked twice last week and has lost six in a row to compile its 2-12 record. For the five diamond squads in the South Shore, that makes a combined 35 wins and 44 losses with about two weeks in the regular season until the start of the playoffs.
Two of the South Shore victories last week belonged to the Lennard Longhorns who conquered both neighborhood rivals via a shutout. First, it was 7-0 over East Bay High April 4. Then the Horns repeated the goose egg by thwarting Riverview High 4-0 on April 6. Coach Victor Martinez’ boys took the trip to Spring Hill Saturday where the Horns fell 6-2 to Bishop McLaughlin High and put their season record at 9-7 going into this week.
In an early week game April 10, Lennard tangled with another South Shore neighborhood rival, the 10-7 Sumner Stingrays at Sumner. Then on April 12, the Horns travel to Sarasota to clash with the 7-11 Riverview Rams at 7 p.m. The fourth road game in a row ends with an April 14 trek to Bradenton to duel Manatee County High at 7 p.m. Next week features all three games in Ruskin. Brandon brings its squad to face Lennard on April 17. Plant High is the next visitor, April 20 at 7 p.m. The week wraps up with the toughest team, and the most creative mascot, as the 15-2 Sickles Gryphons come to town for a 10 a.m. Saturday game. A Gryphon, by the way, is a legendary, mythical creature with the body, tail and back legs of a lion combined with the head, wings, and front talons of an eagle. It’s somewhat ferocious and unusual!
Lennard received splendid shutout pitching in last week’s victories from both senior Carter Payne and senior Jackson Mueller. Payne yielded only one hit in six innings versus East Bay in the early week contest. Junior Jose Rivera closed the game by hurling a scoreless inning. The Horns offense was provided by senior batsmen Alex Brazer and Logan Covey, who each drove in three runs. In the 4-0 blanking of Riverview April 6, Mueller gave up one hit and fanned nine. Mueller also went six innings. Freshman relief pitcher Talan Miranda closed against the Sharks with a hitless inning.
Lennard is looking for the same good pitching this week and the continued good hitting. Junior Matthew Counts is hot with a team leading .306 batting average on 15 hits. Counts has also scored 11 runs. Freshman Mikie Locke has knocked out 13 hits for a .289 average. Senior Joseph Rivera has been consistent with a .283 average, 13 hits and 12 RBIs. Brazer and Covey have slipped slightly in batting average, but Brazer has the Horns only two home runs along with a team-top 13 RBIs while Covey has knocked in 10 runners.
Meanwhile, the Riverview Sharks under Coach Jason Smith have a pair of tough teams to deal with this week in trying to snap a four-game losing streak. The 12-3 Durant Cougars visited the Sharks April 11. On April 13, Riverview takes a bus trip to play the 8-6 Palm Harbor Hurricanes. The 9-6 Bloomingdale Bulls host the Sharks April 18. Riverview’s offense continues to be pumped by senior Farah Castillo and junior Adrian Rolon, though not enough. In the 9-2 loss to Plant City High last week, Rolon had a monster day at the plate. In the losing cause, Rolon went 4/4 with a home run, two runs and an RBI.
Over at Spoto High, the Spartans look to break the .500 mark. Touting an 8-8 mark to start this week, Spoto hosted the 10-5 Newsome Wolves in an early-week game. A Thursday evening visit to 2-13 Brandon follows. Then the 9-8 Steinbrenner Warriors come to Spoto for a Saturday noon clash. Next week, the Spartans visit Plant City for a Tuesday game.
One of the workhorses for Spoto and Coach Stephon Knight has been junior pitcher Peyton Nisy. Over 41 innings, Nisy has a respectable 2.90 ERA. In last week’s Senior Night win over Brandon 7-2, Nisy hurled a complete game, gave up only five hits, yielded two unearned runs, struck out two and walked none. The Spartans top hitter for average has been junior Able Jiminez at .348. Other top offensive performances have come from junior Cullen Cairns, at .289 and 12 RBIs, and senior Chase Wink, sporting a .267 average along with 11 RBIs. Senior Ken Glover is hitting .269.
Head Coach Rowland Ruiz is having trouble getting his East Bay Indians to produce runs. The Indians are in the midst of a six-game losing skein. Last week EB sustained shutout losses. A 7-0 defeat April 4 was followed by an 8-0 loss to Durant. This week, EB hosted Bloomingdale at 9-6 in an early-week contest. Then a trip to play 2-13 Tampa Bay Tech April 13 provides an opportunity for a possible victory. Next week, a trip to tough Newsome on Tuesday is scheduled. Sub-par 4-12 King High is a reasonable match for an April 21 trip to Tampa.
Sumner High went 1-2 last week but still maintains the best record in the South Shore. Coach Kennedy Duran has his
Stingrays at 10-7. Lennard, Coach Duran’s former team, visited Sumner for a big game April 10. A trip to Tampa to meet 11-4 Plant High is set for April 13. The tough grind continues for Sumner next week with a Tuesday trip to play the 12-3 Durant Cougars. (Articles and photos on Sumner sports by Francis Fedor are in every week’s Observer News print and ObserverNews.net digital.)
