At Englebert Complex
Scores
Osceola 11, Pinellas Park 4
Clearwater Central Catholic 17, Tarpon Springs 6 (six innings)
Pitchers of the day
Ethan Wheeler threw four solid innings for Osceola before running into trouble in the fifth. He gave up only two hits through four innings, before allowing four runs in the fifth. Osceola reliever Garrett Sullivan shut down the Patriots in the final two innings. …CCC reliever Joe Messina relieved starter Jeff Smith in the fourth and got out of trouble. He then got six straight batters out in the final two innings.
Hitters of the day
Osceola’s Joey Coca went 3-for-5 with a triple, double, single and three runs scored. Coca tripled on the first pitch he saw from Pinellas Park starter Brandon Grigsby. Jaret Helinger had a double, triple and two RBI for the Warriors. …Pinellas Park’s Ryan Griffith had a two-RBI single and Derek Jaar a two RBI double in the Patriots’ four-run fifth inning. …Andrew Murphy was red hot for CCC. He was 4-for-5 with three singles and a two-RBI triple. He scored three runs and drove in three. CCC’s Zuriel Collins had a triple, a single and two runs scored. And Brenden Overton hit a two-run home run in a seven-run fourth inning. …Aaron Dickson had a two-RBI double for Tarpon Springs to help spark a five-run fourth inning.
Defensive gem of the day
There were two good defensive plays by both teams in the CCC-Tarpon Springs game. The Marauders were in trouble in the first inning after taking a quick 3-0 lead. Tarpon Springs loaded the bases with no outs. But Tyler Simmons fielded a grounder at first, stepped on the back and threw home, where Andrew Mink tagged out the runner for a double play. The Spongers did not score in the inning. In the fifth inning, Tarpon Springs leftfielder Jackson Crosby threw out CCC’s Murphy at home to stop a rally.
Dugout chatter
“We’ve been struggling lately offensively. We really focused on attacking the baseball early in the count. Hit the fastball, lay off the curveball. We did that really well in the first couple innings.” — Osceola coach Stefan Futch. The Warriors scored eight runs in the first two innings vs. the Patriots after being shut out in their previous two games.