By STEVE JACKSON
The East Bay High Indians, with an 8-3 record, and the Sumner High Stingrays, at 7-4, are the only two of the five South Shore baseball teams with winning records at this point in the season. As the regular season rolls on with district and state playoffs around the corner, teams look to improve their won-lost marks and establish a stable starting and relief pitching staff.
The Lennard High Longhorns fell back under .500 last week, losing two of three contests to start this week at 6-7 overall. Spoto High and Riverview High both dropped two games apiece last week to slip even further under the break-even point.
The Spoto Spartans stand at 3-10 as of March 25. Riverview continues to struggle, losing three straight to drop to 1-11 overall, starting March 25.
Francis Fedor Photos
Lennard head-coach Victor Martinez addresses the team after his 50th win. Martinez thanked the coaches and players for being a part of the team effort to get to 50 wins.
Lennard senior Matthew Counts steals second to move into scoring position in win vs. the Eagles. He scored on a base hit.
Last week, the East Bay Indians of head coach Rowland Ruiz teed off on a mediocre Blake Yellow Jackets to narrowly escape with an 8-7 win early in the week. The competition and the pitching were somewhat more difficult later in the week against a more formidable foe, the 10-2 Durant Cougars. Playing on the EB home diamond provided no advantage as the visiting Cougars dominated to waltz to a 7-0 win. Durant pounded 10 hits off a pair of Indian hurlers, while the Cougars starting pitcher, Gehrig Graham, and one-inning reliever, Jack Brooks, throttled the East Bay offense with a shutout on only three hits.
The Indians opened this week Tuesday at Valrico with the 6-5 Bloomingdale Bulls. Next Monday, April 1, East Bay takes the short ride to Ruskin to do battle with neighborhood rival Lennard Longhorns. Next weekend, East Bay hosts an excellent Newsome High on Friday, April 5. The very next morning, the Indians trek to play a 10 a.m. Saturday game against the 7-6 Strawberry Crest in Dover.
East Bay has a decent offense, with some good hitting being provided by M. Garcia at .524, Andrew Gingrich at .423, Dylan Simonsen at .471, Shawn Dowe at .413 and Rory Beaufort at .379. Indian pitcher M. Mowel has flashed some brilliance from the mound with a no-hitter and an overall 2.63 earned run average. Sherman Johnson is another competent Indian hurler, compiling a season 3.50 ERA. East Bay has outscored opponents 97-40 in its 11 games.
The Lennard Longhorns have a tough schedule coming up, ending March and beginning April. After winning one and losing two last week, the Horns hosted powerhouse 10-2 Durant on Monday. Lennard started last week losing at Palmetto High 4-0. The Horns were limited to only one hit by senior Palmetto pitcher Andrew Spahn.
Teammates encourage Lennard pitcher Christian Skaggs before the start of a game vs. Brandon on Thursday, March 21.
Last Thursday Lennard achieved the 50th win of head coach Vincent Martinez’ career, all at Lennard. Back home in Ruskin, Lennard walked all over a weak Brandon Eagles squad, 15-0, for the milestone victory. The Horns rapped out only five hits but drew 14 base-on-balls from three Brandon pitchers and stole five bases. Horns sophomore Rowland Ruiz went 2 for 3 with four RBIs. Lennard junior Jesse Robledo was 2 for 2 with two runs and two RBIs. The trio of Lennard pitchers, taking advantage of this shortened game, were starting sophomore Christian Skaggs, who gave up Brandon’s only two hits, junior Daniel DePaolo and sophomore Tommy Martinez. Later last week at Ruskin, Lennard’s offense went cold again, managing only sophomore Mikie Locke’s double in a humiliating 11-0 defeat to the Sickles Gryphons last Saturday. The Horns beat Sickles 6-2 previously in the Saladino Tourney behind lefty senior Zack Bird’s two hitter.
On the season offensively, Lennard has been sparked by its three senior outfielders. Matthew Counts tops the Horns with a .375 batting average, Christian Montgomery is consistent at .324 and Kim Hunter has a respectable .286 mark. Junior third baseman RJ Torres is humming along with a .344 average at the plate. As a team, Lennard has tallied 72 runs and given up 51 in its 13 games through March 24.
Longhorn sophomore Peyton Newman dives back into first base in a game vs. Palmetto on Monday, March 18.
Top pitchers so far for Lennard are sophomore Talan Miranda with a 2-2 record and a 2.17 ERA; senior Zack Bird, who has not been as sharp as last season yet but has managed a 1-2 record on a 3.44 ERA; and junior Horn hurler Pablo Garcia, who is the leading pitcher with innings pitched at 21 and sports a 1-0 mark with 26 strikeouts, also a Horn high.
For Spoto High of coach Stephan Knight, it has been a frustrating 3-10 season. The Spartans look to take advantage early this week by hosting Riverview after losing two games last week. The Spartans dropped a 4-2 road game to Plant City and then fell 4-0 to Robinson High last Saturday.
The Spartans cannot seem to get over the hump despite some fairly good pitching and hitting from seniors Peyton Nisy and Cullen Cairns. Spoto has several good hitters, including underclassman Levert Sims, who is whacking the ball at around .400 with five stolen bases and six runs. Spoto hopes to get that winning combination going against the Riverview Sharks in a Tuesday game early this week at Spoto. Then the Spartans challenge gets a little more difficult with a trip to Wharton High for a late week clash March 28. It does not get any easier next week. On April 2, Spoto hosts Bloomingdale, followed by a Thursday visit to Sumner High, with the week-ending trip on Saturday, April 6, versus Tampa Bay Tech in Tampa.
Riverview also continues to struggle for victories. The Sharks of coach Garrett Thompson were whipped twice last week. Early last week, Riverview lost 15-5 to Robinson High. Then the Sharks also dropped the late week game 10-2 to Bloomingdale. Riverview needs some offensive help in addition to junior Ryan Butner’s hitting at a .278 clip and senior Caiden Kamrad’s batting .263. A pair of seniors, Elijah Tishman and Jeff Berrios, have been handling most of the challenges from the mound with ERAs at 3.15 and 3.82 respectively.
Brandon catcher congratulates Lennard head-coach Victor Martinez on his 50th Longhorn win.
The Sharks have a challenging six-game schedule from Monday, March 26, all the way through Saturday, April 6. Steinbrenner at 4-8 visits the Sharks Thursday, March 28. On April 1, Riverview travels to play the 5-6 Bartow Yellow Jackets. Then April 2 Riverview faces another tough challenge versus rival Sumner High at The Sharks’ diamond. The best chance to dig out a second win comes April 4 at Brandon High. The Sharks then trek to face powerful Sickles High at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 6.
Sumner High, coached by Kennedy Duran, split a pair on the diamond last week. The 7-4 Stingrays are facing a pair of top teams this week in Plant City and Palm Harbor. See further information on Sumner High sports by Francis Fedor in this weekly newspaper and digital presentation at ObserverNews.net/.