Regional baseball roundup: Lakewood Ranch silenced by Satan, Plant in regional semifinals
MONDAY
BASEBALL
H.B. Plant 7, Lakewood Ranch 0
TAMPA − H.B Plant High got stellar pitching from Robert Satin and used a big inning to knock out Lakewood Ranch High.
Satin pitched a one-hit shutout and the Panthers broke open a scoreless game with five runs in the fifth inning to defeat the Mustangs 7-0 in a Class 7A-Region 2 semifinal game Monday evening at Wade Boggs Field.
Top-seeded Plant moves onto the regional final at 7 p.m. Tuesday at home against Windermere. Lakewood Ranch saw its winning streak snapped at four games and its season came to a close in a game postponed from Saturday because of rain.
Lakewood Ranch takeaways
1. Satin, a senior left-hander was smooth as silk. He had a perfect game through 4 ⅔ before a tough error put Luis Flores on first base to break up his gem.
Satin did not allow a hit until cleanup hitter Andrew Schroeder knocked one past first baseman Jack Meade with two outs in the seventh inning, the Mustangs’ lone hit of the game.
Of Satin’s 72 pitches, 55 were strikes, as he fanned nine and did not walk a hitter.
“He had good stuff,” Lakewood Ranch coach Colton Chupp said. “A good slider, working backwards, just throwing the fastball first pitch, great off-speed pitches he could throw for strikes. He had great 0-2 pitches. It just shows what kind of pitcher he is and what he has done for them the whole season.”
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Satin is the 500th-ranked and 74th left-handed pitching prospect in the country. In raising his record to 11-0, Satin pitched his eighth complete game, second shutout and has 99 strikeouts in 71 ⅓ innings.
2. Alex Vaillancourt matched Satin pitch for pitch through four innings. Perfect through three innings, Vaillancourt worked around a leadoff single in the fourth by retiring the next three hitters.
In the fifth, Trey Freeman opened with a double down the right field line and Jack Meade had a bunt single and stole second. After a strikeout, an intentional walk loaded the bases. No. 9 hitter Tanner Swank walked on a 3-2 pitch to force in the only run the Panthers needed on this night.
Cole Dement replaced Vaillancourt. With the infield in, a grounder was booted to permit two runs to score. Rocco Demarinis then hit a high-chopper over a drawn-in infield to produce two more runs and make it 5-0.
“I was thinking more of a one-run game,” Chupp said. “Whoever scored first was going to win. That’s what I saw from the start. They had that one big inning. We had an error or two there.”
3. After a 3-2 district loss to Sarasota in eight innings March 27, the Mustangs fell to 6-5. They won 13 of their next 15, including capturing the district title with a 1-0 victory over Venice High, to go into Monday’s game. “I thought it was a great season for us,” Chupp said. “We battled through it. We finished out pretty strong, even though we lost to these guys. It’s good because there are a lot of young guys on the team.”
Lakewood Ranch (19-8) lists only three starters on its roster: starting third baseman Holden Pollock, Dement and reserve outfielder Anthony Izzo.
“We have a pretty young team,” Chupp said. “We’re looking pretty solid for next year. We’ve got all the guys returning, pretty much. We should be good.”
Lakewood Ranch was the final area baseball team alive.
− Dennis Maffezzoli
FRIDAY
BASEBALL
Class 2A-Region 3 semifinal
Canterbury 3, Out-of-Door Academy 0
FORT MYERS — The Canterbury baseball team was in desperate need of a spark on Friday coming into its Class 2A-Region 3 semifinal game against Out-of-Door Academy.
The Thunder had ended the Cougars’ season each of the past two years, with Austin Schrowe on the mound for both losses.
Schrowe was amped up Friday night, pitching an 83-pitch, complete game shutout in a 3-0 win over Out-of-Door in a game that took just 90 minutes. Canterbury will advance to the 2A-3 championship game between the winner of Neumann and Northside Christian, a game that will be resumed Saturday night with the Celtics leading 7-3.
“I was just out there having fun, doing what I do,” Schrowe said. “I just see what the strike zone is, try to pound it, give my infielders and outfielders a chance, and see what happens from there. You can only do the best you can.
“It was a great experience being able to beat them, finally. It’s been two years, back to back, I’ve gotten the loss in this game, and this year, it went the other way. If I knew that was the seventh inning.”
The Cougars got to starter Carter Malartsik in the first inning, as Miami commit Evan Taveras launched a three-run home field over the left field fence to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Those would be the only runs the Cougars would plate, despite totaling 10 hits in the contest. Taveras would add a double in his second at-bat but would be left stranded in scoring position.
“It was one swing,” Taveras said. “Changed the game there. Even though we only had three runs on the board, it doesn’t show the full outcome out what we did tonight. We barreled many baseballs up hard. We could’ve put up more runs, but stuff happens.
“For us, this whole year has been about energy. The past few games, we came out flat and it kinda showed… Tonight, we all were having fun out there and having a great time.”
Out-of-Door coach Mike Matthews knew the Cougars would trot out Schrowe for the third year in a row against him. The left-hander didn’t seem to lose velocity throughout his outing, and worked very efficiently, throwing a pitch every 10 to 12 seconds.
“This team battled all year,” Matthews said. “They showed a lot of growth throughout the year, which was shown. We won 11 out of our last 13 games. Our seniors did a great job leading us and making an adjustment halfway through the year. Schrowe picked a heck of a game, and we let him settle in a little bit. We barreled baseballs up, right to guys. I’m not upset about the way we swung it.
“Keeping him at a low pitch count really hurt us. We were calling time multiple times to try and shake him up and get him out of his groove. That’s just who he is. When he’s getting quick outs, there's not much you can do to shake up his groove.”
Canterbury coach Frank Turco lauded ODA’s ability to compete
“He’s been our catalyst, so it was nice to see him get redemption,” Turco said. “I’ve got to tip my hat to them because they don’t have the team they’ve had the last two years, and (Matthews) still finds a way to compete. Hats off to them. (Jack) Hobson can swing it, and they’ve got some speedsters. It was a good night for us, but the goal of getting to Hammond Stadium is still out there, and we’ve got to do it somehow, some way. It’s smoke and mirrors sometimes, but I’m proud of our guys for working hard and showing up to practice to get better. It’s been a fun group to be with.”
Gavin Howe went 2-for-3 in the No. 8 spot for Canterbury (26-4), while Joseph De La Nuez and Bryce Habuda both went 1-for-3. Nevan Hernandez and Jack Hobson combined to notch four hits for the Thunder (20-8).
- Alex Martin
WEDNESDAY
BASEBALL
Class 7A-Region 2 quarterfinal
Lakewood Ranch 6, Winter Haven 1
LAKEWOOD RANCH - The host Lakewood Ranch Mustangs broke open a scoreless tie with six runs in the fifth inning and went on to a 6-1 victory over Winter Haven on Wednesday night in a Class 7A-Region 2 quarterfinal baseball game.
The win moved the Mustangs’ record to 19-7 and put them in a regional semifinal game Saturday night at 7 against top-seeded Plant, which beat Sarasota 14-2 on Wednesday night in another 7A quarterfinal game. The loss ended the Blue Devils’ season at 19-8.
The victory went to Mustang starter Lochlan Radloff, who pitched the complete-game win, allowing the one Winter Haven run, which was unearned. Blue Devil starter Bubba Miller took the loss.
Lakewood Ranch takeaways
Mustang head coach Colton Chupp couldn’t say enough good things about his starter, junior left-hander Lochlan Radloff, who pitched a complete game, allowing four Winter Haven hits and one run, one walk and seven strikeouts. Radloff finished the game with his 105th pitch, as mandated in 2016 by the Florida High School Athletic Association, the exact number of pitches allowed for 17- and 18-year-olds to throw in a day. Radloff came into the game with an 0-1 mark and a 3.40 ERA, though he had 70 strikeouts in 47.1 innings. “I’ve watched him since he was a freshman,” Chupp said. “The man has done a great job mixing up speeds; curve ball, change-up. He’s probably one of the best pitchers I’ve seen around here. His last two games have probably been his best two starts this season.” In Ranch's district semifinal, a 2-1 victory over Gulf Coast, the 6-foot southpaw pitched a complete-game two-hitter, with one walk and 13 strikeouts.
Chupp said he was able to pick up an early tell from Winter Haven starter Bubba Miller with men on base. “After the first three innings, he switched it up,” Chupp said, “but when he was looking at the plate, he was going over to first. And when he was mixing it up and looking at the runner, he would go home. I wanted to see if we should go on his first move.” The Mustangs stole just one base in the game, but it came in their sixth-run fifth.
A true freshman has been starting in center field for the Mustangs. Carter Sprague, who had two hits against the Blue Devils, scored a run and knocked in one, batted .286 on the season and led the team with 20 runs scored and eight stolen bases. “I played here,” Chupp said, “and as a senior we actually had one freshman who started, but he’s a great athlete. He can move and catch balls and he can hit. He’s done tremendously well for us.”
Last year, the Mustangs finished 10-16. This season, they’re 19-7 and headed to a regional semifinal. What’s been the difference? “Pitching, defense, and timely hitting,” Chupp said. The Mustangs got that Wednesday night. In the fifth, when 10 men came to the plate, Ranch got five hits, a walk, and took advantage of a Blue Devil error. Sprague, Jack Muller, Luis Flores Guerra, and Hayden Antonelli all had RBIs in the frame. And in their last three games, Mustang pitchers have allowed just two runs.
Winter Haven takeaways
Consider Blue Devil manager David Schafer a fan of Mustang starter and winner Lochlan Radloff, who allowed four hits and one Winter Haven run, which was unearned. “He is not big in stature, but he is really big at understanding the art of pitching,” Schafer said. “He’s a legitimate real pitcher. He moves the ball up and down, he controls the pitch count and the tempo of the game. He has a great inner confidence in himself and goes after the other team’s hitters.”
After winning 19 games, the Blue Devils hit the skids their last three games, losing all three while scoring just two runs. “They’re 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids,” Schafer said. “They got graduation coming up, parties, and they’re all wondering where they’re going next year for school. They lose focus.”
Schafer, in his seventh season as Winter Haven coach, said the future looks bright. “We have a lot of returners and our JV group coming up is really (good).” This season marked the 14th-straight season the Blue Devils have qualified for the regional tournament. “So that means some of our kids were in diapers when this streak started. For a 19-win season, we were very successful.”
TUESDAY
BASEBALL
Class 2A-Region 3
Out-of-Door Academy 7, Seffner Christian 4
SARASOTA - Down 4-1, host Out-of-Door Academy scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on just two hits and rallied to defeat Seffner Christian 7-4 on Tuesday in a Class 2A-Region 3 quarterfinal game.
The victory, the Thunder’s 11th in its last 12 games, moved ODA’s record to 20-7 and set up a regional semifinal game at top-seeded Canterbury on Friday night at 7.
Held to just four hits in the game, ODA got two of them in the sixth. A double by Jack Hobson, whose first-inning home run had put the Thunder up 1-0, knocked in two runs. Brandon Beasley followed Hobson with a run-scoring single.
Out-of-Door Academy takeaways
Thunder head coach Mike Matthews has to feel fortunate his team is moving on. Thanks to some shoddy play in the field by the visiting Crusaders, ODA scored its seven runs - three earned - on just four hits. Early on, the Thunder hitters were hitting the deliveries of Seffner starter Ian Bast into the air. And when the Crusaders took a 4-1 lead in the sixth, Matthews said he could feel his team’s energy “depleted.” But he got his team to change its approach at the plate. “(Bast) was mixing up his off-speed stuff a lot and we were out in front, just popping the ball up,” Matthews said. “You can’t win games like that. Just focus (on the ball’s top half) and some of those are going to turn into line drives and hard ground balls. So, we were able to do that and I thought we had some tremendous at-bats.”
Head coach Mike Matthews could have started senior Luke Geske against the Crusaders, which he did, or sophomore Carter Malartsik. Geske came in with a 1.39 ERA, and Malartsik a 1.71 ERA. Geske ended up pitching into the fifth inning before faltering in the top of the sixth, retiring no one and allowing three Crusader runs. But Malartsik entered the game and struck out the final two batters of the frame. ODA then waged its comeback in the bottom of the frame.
Suffice to say, neither team played a clean game. After Jack Hobson’s first-inning home run put the Thunder up 1-0, the Crusaders tied it in the top of the third without the benefit of a hit. An ODA error on a ball hit by CJ Koenck, a stolen base, a dropped third strike, allowing Koenck to take third, followed by a Geske wild pitch, plated Koenck with the tying run. “It wasn’t a perfect game,” Matthews said. “Baseball is a game of that, and it’s a game of luck sometimes, and, fortunately, we caught the breaks in the bottom of the sixth.”
The Thunder may be taking on top-ranked Canterbury on Friday night in the regional semis, but Matthews feels his team won’t be intimidated. ODA has defeated the Cougars the last two times the teams have played. Last season, the Thunder beat Canterbury in the regional semifinals en route to the state semis. “These guys are confident,” he said. “It’s going to be a dogfight, and it’s just about doing what we do on the field, and if we execute, we got a chance to win.”
Seffner Christian takeaways
The Crusaders have to feel they gave this game away. In the sixth, when the Thunder used just two hits to score six runs, Crusader pitchers hit a batter, walked two, and uncorked two wild pitches. And in the field, right-fielder Will Rudometkins failed to hit the cut-off man on Dobson’s double, allowing him to take third. The next batter, Brandon Beasley, hit a two-hopper to Crusader second baseman Colin McNeal. But instead of throwing strongly to first, McNeal lobbed it to first baseman Shay Dean. The throw was both high and late to get Beasley, and a run scored on the play. Another run scored on a wild pitch by Seffner reliever Austin Trimble, who relieved Bast in the sixth.
Crusader head coach Sal Giardina could be second-guessed for staying with Bast a bit too long. In the bottom of the sixth, Bast hit leadoff hitter Nevan Hernandez. When the next batter, Giovanni Giuliani walked, Giardina came out to visit Bast, but left him in the game. But two ODA singles followed, and following a pop up, he walked Nolan Naese. At that point, Giardina replaced Bast, who left after throwing 82 pitches, with Trimble, who allowed a Malartsik sacrifice fly for a run. He then uncorked a wild pitch with Griffin DeRusso at the plate, allowing Beasley to score to make it 6-4. Another Trimble wild pitch eventually plated DeRusso, putting ODA up 7-4.
Class 5A-Region 3
Island Coast 3, Parrish Community 2
PARRISH − The Island Coast High baseball team erased a two-run deficit with three runs in the fourth inning and rode the pitching of senior Kevin Martinez to capture a 3-2 victory over Parrish Community High in the Class 5A-Region 3 quarterfinals Tuesday night at the Bulls field.
The sixth-seeded Gators (24-4) will travel to second-seeded Osceola in Seminole for the regional semifinal. Osceola defeated Hollins, 10-0.
Third-seeded Parrish Community finished the season 19-8.
Parrish Community takeaways
• The Bulls could not have asked for any more from junior right-hander Troy Guthrie. In six innings, Guthrie allowed four hits and three runs (two earned) while striking out 11 without issuing a walk. Guthrie threw 70 strikes among his 103 pitches, using his slider down in the zone to get a good chunk of his strikeouts. “He’s the definition of an ace,” Parrish Community coach Brett Andrzejewski said of Guthrie, who was named the Manatee County Pitcher of the Year. “He’s got some stones. That’s our ace and we’re going to ride with him. He did an excellent job executing. He’s got one of the best sliders of anybody I’ve ever coached. He obviously has the firm fastball to go with it too. He did a tremendous job tonight.”
• Down a run in the seventh, the Bulls went down swinging. With one out an error and a Tyler Cripe single placed runners on first and second, bringing Will Rawls, the No. 3 hitter in the Parrish Community lineup, to the plate. Rawls jumped on a high fastball and drove it deep to left field. Many of the hometown faithful thought it had a chance to be a game-winning, three-run homer. But the ball settled into the glove of Gators left fielder Jason Richardson for the second out of the inning. “The ball doesn’t travel here, which we knew,” Andrzejewski said. “I think everybody here thought that thing had a shot to get out. That left fielder made a great play because the ball can get lost in the lights here.”
• The Bulls did accomplish their goal of getting Martinez out of the game and getting into the Island Coast bullpen. Martinez was lifted for junior right-hander Maston Blackburn, who got a long fly ball to center for the final out of the game. “We knew his pitch count was getting up and if we got to the bullpen we really, really liked our odds,” Andrzejewski said. “We didn’t think we were going to get a shot at their ’pen.”
• Parrish Community’s two runs came in the second inning. With two outs and none on, Matt Thompsen doubled and Ayden Hinkel walked. Jabrien Quiles and Alex Tallo, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup, each drove in a run with a single.
Island Coast takeaways
• K-Mart was dealing. After giving up the two runs in the second inning, Martinez shut out the Bulls the rest of the way on four hits. It was symbolic of most of his outings. “Really, my first few innings have never been the best for me,” said Martinez, who raised his record to 12-0. “I’m always trying to get into a rhythm. After that I’m always confident with my pitches. My velo (velocity) always picks up toward the fifth and sixth. We just kept the game plan we were going with.”
In 6 ⅔ innings Martinez allowed eight hits and two runs with two walks and five strikeouts. “K-Mart has been really special for us the last two years,” Island Coast coach Clint Montgomery said. “He just has a mental fortitude about him that he’s going to compete and go after people. He’s one of the mentally toughest kids I’ve ever met. He gives us a chance every time he’s on the bump.”
• If Rawls was going to beat Martinez, it was going to be with his fastball. “The coach asked me what I wanted to throw. I said fastball, middle. If he is going to beat me, I want him to beat me like that,” Martinez said. “I just went the best pitch you can throw. If he would have beat me, props to him.”
“Playing a little bit of no doubles, we were a little deeper than we normally are,” Island Coast coach Clint Montgomery said. “That problem helped him out. But he made a good read and got back and made the catch. My reaction after he made the catch was relief.”
• The Gators pulled the hidden ball trick on Parrish Community’s first base runner of the game. Calin Heath opened the bottom of the first with a single and Island Coast first baseman Emilio Gonzalez kept the ball and tagged Heath out when he took his lead. “The hidden ball trick, we actually never practiced that or anything,” Martinez said. “The ball was thrown over there and I saw he kept it and I just tried to stay off the mound as long as I can. Me and Emilio go back to T-ball, so there’s always been some chemistry there. I knew what he was going for. And I let him ride with it, and it really worked out.”
“I didn’t even know it was on,” Montgomery said. “I’ve never coached that in my life. When the umpire said he was out, I was as surprised as anyone else. The kids did it on their own.”
• The defending Class 4A state champion also staged a two-out rally to produce the winning runs. Gonzalez singled on a 3-2 pitch, Jordi Guerrero was hit with a pitch. Mason Blackburn and Jeyven Torres knocked in runs with singles. Blackburn scored what proved to be the winning run on an error on an attempted pickoff at third base. “Usually we’re an offensive team, but that kid’s off-speed pitches were incredible,” Montgomery said of Guthrie. “We had to battle and had that one inning there.”
− Dennis Maffezzoli
Class 2A-Region 3
Out-of-Door 7, Seffner Christian 4
Class 4A-Region 3
Hardee 1, Lemon Bay 0
Class 5A-Region 3
Island Coast 3, Parrish Community 2
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Regional baseball roundup: Plant silences Lakewood Ranch, 7-0, in semis
