By STEVE JACKSON
All five of the South Shore 5 high school baseball teams open play this Saturday at various sites in the heralded Tony & Bertha Saladino Baseball Tournament. This is the 44th year of the prestigious baseball tourney in Hillsborough County, featuring three exciting divisions. It was started by the Sladinos “to provide a purposeful spring break activity for high school baseball players other than going to the beach.”
Prior to the five-day Saladino Tournament opening games on March 15, all five South Shore teams play a pair of regular season games this week before the annual week-long spring holiday for public schools, which runs from March 15 until March 24.
Lennard senior third baseman RJ Torres snags a ball to start a third-to-first double play in action vs. Durant on March 4.
Longhorn Pablo Garcia delivers a pitch in game vs. the Durant Cougars on March 4.
The South Shore 5 teams compiled a 4-8 record on the diamond in last week’s action, their worst overall mark since the season started.
The East Bay Indians, of head coach Rowland Ruiz, had the best weekly record of the South Shore 5, winning two and losing zero last week. The Indians thrashed 3-7 Brandon High 13-2 early last week, pounding out 11 hits and making no errors in the one-side romp. Batting highlights were provided by sophomore Connor Gavigan, who slapped a home run among his 3 for 4 at the plate with three runs and three RBIs. Other top hitters for the Indians included junior Jaxson Farchione with 3 for 4, a run and two RBIs and junior Jeffrey Diab with 2 for 5, a run, RBI, and a triple. Freshman Maxzell Mathis banged 2 for 4 and scored twice. Junior Cameron Cook dominated from the mound, going five innings giving up two runs and whiffing six while walking zero. Later in the week, East Bay stayed hot, drilling Plant City High 8-1 behind the hurling of Mike Mowell, who went five innings, gave up one hit and stuck out nine. Senior Rory Beauford was hot at the plate, going 3 for 3 and scoring two runs.
The Indians visited Riverview High early this week. Then East Bay hosts the 7-3 Gaither Cowboys March 13 at 7 p.m.
Riverview High, of coach Garrett Thompson, lost three times last week to run its losing steak to four. Now at 5-6, the Sharks dueled East Bay at Riverview on March 11. The Sharks have the weakest team on their schedule, the Tenoroc High Titans from Lakeland, coming to Riverview for a Thursday evening game at 7:30 p.m. The Titans are 0-8, having scored 17 runs and given up 149 on the season. In Riverview’s 11 games, the Sharks have tallied 76 and given up 58.
Lennard High was also winless last week. The Longhorns, of head coach Victor Martinez, had a difficult time scoring or holding the opposition. Bloomingdale bombed Lennard 10-1 early in the week. The Durant Cougars continued the onslaught, topping Lennard 9-2 last Thursday. The Horns need to get some hitting from other batters, in addition to junior Mikie Locke, who is hitting .450, and senior RJ Torres, who is hitting .370. Junior JV Brennick is providing decent mound work with a 1-1 record, a 3.67 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 21 innings. Other dependable Horn hurlers are senior Pablo Garcia at 1-2, 3.50 ERA in 12 innings; junior Christian Skaggs at 0-1, 2.33 ERA, nine innings; and Tommy Martinez, 2.00 ERA, seven innings.
Francis Fedor Photos
Lennard and Durant captains and managers go over the ground rules prior to their game on March 4 at Lennard HS.
Prior to hosting games in the Silver Division of the Saladino Tourney, Lennard hopes to get back on the winning side with road games this week. The Horns visited 3-7 Brandon this Monday and then host 3-7 King High at 7 p.m., March 13.
Spoto High, of coach Livings Milledge, split its two games last week and had a pair of contests this week, in an effort to improve its 6-4 mark before starting its run in the Saladino Tourney Saturday afternoon in the Bronze Division. Now 6-4, the Spartans visited 5-3 Durant early this week. The Cougars are expected to be a tough, competitive squad, but the Spartans should be able to handle 1-10 Hillsborough High this Thursday at 7 p.m. in Spoto.
Sumner High, of coach Kennedy Duran, lost two games last week by the identical score of 10-0, first at Durant and then at Alonso High. In between, the Stingrays blasted Spoto 11-0. This week, the 5-4 Rays had the formidable task of dueling a tough 8-2 Newsome High, March 11. (See Francis Fedor articles & photos on Sumner High in the weekly Observer News in print and also the digital site at OberverNews.net/.)