By STEVE JACKSON
In case you haven’t noticed, it is baseball season in Florida at all levels, including the South Shore. All South Shore Five high school baseball teams have already started their 2025 season. Last week the five squads won six and lost six and have more to come this week and beyond as the weather heats up.
The biggest splurge and most surprising of this new season is the rapid emergence of Spoto High. The Spartans struggled to a 7-19 record last season. In fact, since its inception as a high school in 2006, Spoto has experienced only one season above .
500 and that barely at 13-11 in 2009. Now, fresh out of the starting gate and with a former major league baseball journeyman as the new head coach, Spoto has exhibited some fine early hitting and pitching to win all four of its first games this February. The Spartans lambasted Southeast High 16-0 to open the season. Continuing the potent offensive display, the Spartans romped to a 17-6 victory the next day versus Chamberlain High. Pitching was the name of the game in the Spartans third straight win, this one a 2-0 squeaker over Leto High last week. Good pitching and timely hitting were the keys for Spoto’s fourth consecutive win, 5-1, over the Booker Tornadoes of Sarasota Friday.
Longhorn senior third baseman RJ Torres snags a ball down the third base line; he ran down the Knight runner from second for an out.
Spoto is responding in a positive manner to its new coach, a former Little League, high school, Japanese league and major league ball player, Lastings Milledge, from Bradenton and the Lakewood Ranch High School. Competing in 5A-District 9, the Spartans played only one game this week, Feb. 18 at 2-0 Brandon High. Next week, the Spartans have three scheduled. Spoto looks to see if its combination of pitching and hitting will help continue an opening hot streak that has seen the Spartans score 40 runs while limiting opponents to only seven. The next home game for Spoto is Feb. 25 with 2-0 Plant City. That will be followed by road games at Steinbrenner High on Feb. 27 and at Tampa Bay Tech at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 1.
The Riverview High Sharks, under Head Coach Garrett Thompson, are another perennial losing team that is off to a good start. The Sharks have combined great pitching with tremendous batting to go 2-0 with victories over Blake High, 11-1, and Middleton, whom they blasted 18-1 last week. The romp over the Blake Yellow Jackets was sparked by Jan Carlos Rodriqeuz, who went 2 for 3 at the plate and tallied a pair of runs. Brady Rebello made it to base three times and scored a run in the season-opening win. Sharks junior right-hander Driston Marino’s pitching was superb as he went five innings, striking out eight and walking only one Blake batter. Later last week, Riverview wore out Middleton behind the hurling of Xavier Gonzalez and the bat of Rebello, who had four RBIs, two runs and a 2 for 3 night at the plate. Also swinging a torrid bat was Anthony Shellman, who collected five RBIs, scored three times and stroked a home run on a 2 for 3 stat at the dish. Justin Edwards also was stroking versus Middleton with 3 for 3, including three runs and two RBIs.
Starter Christian Skaggs throws early in the game in a 4-0 loss to the Robinson Knights. Skaggs struck out six Knights in his appearance.
The Sharks look to continue their new-found success on the road this week. First up was Durant High on Tuesday, followed by a visit to Freedom High on Thursday. The Hillsborough High Terriers come to Riverview for an 11 a.m. contest this Saturday, Feb. 22. Next week, the Sharks battle at 0-2 Sumner High, Feb. 25, and come home to face Brandon High on Feb.
27. A road trip to Wharton completes the week on March 1 at 11 a.m. Riverview plays in 7A-District 7.
Three other South Shore Five squads are each 0-2, looking for this season’s initial win this week.
Lennard High Coach Victor Martinez enters his fifth season as head of the Longhorns after serving longtime as an assistant to former Lennard coach and now Sumner head coach, Kennedy Duran. Coach Martinez has only one sub .500 year, 2021, when the Horns were 9-13 in his initial campaign. Since then Lennard was 17-6, 18-10 and 13-12 last season. Now the Horns have to start posting some victories if they want to finish above .500 and make the playoffs.
The season started on a losing note for Lennard, 5-3 to Wharton. Things did not get much better when Robinson High came to Ruskin and posted a 4-0 shutout win over Lennard. This week Lennard has already hosted Newsome High, 1-1 so far in the early going. Palmetto High visits Lennard Feb. 20, followed by a March 1 road rip to Jefferson High for a 1 p.m. Saturday game after visiting East Bay High on Feb.25 and Sickles High, Feb. 27. The Horns have a tough schedule playing in 6A-District 11. Offensively, Lennard is depending on RJ Torres, Sebastian Rojas, Peyton Newman, Mikie Locke and newcomer Samuel Norbega, along with Sumner transfer Yovani DePablos. Coach Martinez will lean on the arms of Pablo Garcia, JB Brennick, Daniel DePaolo, Tommy Martinez and Christian Skaggs to keep opposing teams’ bats at a minimum while the team, hopefully, manufactures runs by “getting ’em on, getting ’em over and getting ’em in.”
East Bay High is another squad that will depend on good pitching, supportive defense and timely hitting to break into the win column for the first time this season after the team’s 0-2 start. The Indians lost both games last week, committing three errors in a 5-3 defeat by Leto High. EB received adequate pitching from Connor Gavignon and JJ Groover versus Leto, but unearned runs cost the Indians the game. Indians hurler Mike Mowell also lost the 10-6 rout to King High as he yielded three unearned runs to go along with one earned, even though Mowell struck out seven in 3.1 innings of work. EB’s Eddie Smith is the leading hitter so far in the early season with Rory Beauford hoping to continue to develop as a top notch hitter for the Indians.
Francis fedor Photos
Head coach Victor Martinez goes over the Lennard’s ground rules prior to the start of the game v.s. Robinson.
Bloomingdale High with a 1-1 record hosted EB early this week in Valrico. The Steinbrenner Warriors bring their 2-0 record to Big Bend Road for a duel Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. The Indians bus to Tampa Feb. 22 for an 11 a.m. match with Blake High. Next week East Bay clashes with rival Lennard at EB on Feb. 25, prior to visiting the 0-2 Hillsborough Terriers in Tampa, Feb. 27. East Bay is in 5A-District 9 and is coached by Rowland Ruiz Sr.
Sumner High of Coach Kennedy Duran is the other 0-2 diamond squad in the South Shore Five that is searching for its first win of the young season. The Stingrays compete in 7A-District 7. Three of their next four games are on the road. Earlier this week the ’Rays tangled at 2-0 Plant City. On Feb. 20 the match-up is at Wharton High. Next week, Sumner comes home to combat Riverview on Feb. 25 and then buses to Armwood for a Feb. 27 evening game at 7 p.m.